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Old 22nd Oct 2011, 12:25
  #17 (permalink)  
LowObservable
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Far West Wessex
Posts: 2,580
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Couple of points:

JF is right, of course. I think the last design I saw with a classic highly swept wing was Dassault's ACF (Avion de Combat F**tu, as disrespectful people called it) which was whacked in 1975 in favor of the M2000.

The F-104 indeed had an unswept wing. It's interesting to look at some recent research into supersonic laminar flow (eg Aerion SSBJ) and wonder why the '104 was so notoriously slippery.

Today, we have a few fighter design groups. There are lots of low-sweep (at the quarter chord) wings, evolutionary descendants of the F-5. Canard deltas roam unchecked from Linkoping to Chengdu. The T-50 PAK-FA looks like the F-22's delta wing interbred with MiG-29/Sukhoi "centroplane" which in fact looks a lot like NASA's arrow wing.

LOAgent - That's kind of an odd name for the wing. On the A and B it has been clipped to the point where it no longer looks like a delta at all. The C, not so much, and from some angles it is vaguely reminiscent of a Javelin.

Where the A and B, certainly, are unique is the size of the wings proper, relative to the total span and gross area. Unless there is some aerodynamic subtlety for making the body produce lift efficiently and at low alpha (like the Russian centroplane) the lift distribution plot will have a big dip in the middle and the outer wings will be working hard.

That may be the case: Consider that the C's outer wings are almost twice the size of the A/B's to get down to a 140-some-kt carrier approach speed.

Also, there is a very tight (=high rotational velocity) vortex off the wingtips visible in many photos, and the only maneuver I have seen in videos is a lazy roll that resembles a fat lady being pitched out of an upper berth as an unexpected swell catches the Harwich-to-Hook of Holland ferry...
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