How swept wing actually works?

[JammedStab]

It seems these definitions are difficult to understand. I can't understand what Wikipedia is talking about.

But I do believe that thinner wings delay shockwave formation. Why, because it is thinner and therefore has less camber for airflow acceleration toward the speed of sound. So in the old days of straight wings where they wanted to go faster but delay shockwave formation, wings were made thinner. Of course you can only make a wing so thin and then you have strength problems(plus nor much fuel carrying capability).

So they swept back the wings. This delayed the shockwave even more. The engineers told us that this effectively increases the chord, which actually reduces the thickness/chord ratio, making it seem like a thinner wing.

But what does that mean? Seems difficult to understand. But if you use some imagination for your favourite jet transport and imagine that it was a swing wing airplane it might help(or maybe an F-111).

First you have to accept as fact that a lower thickness to chord ratio means delayed shockwave.

Then imagine the wings can sweep back and forth between 0° sweep and 35° sweep. You have a big saw and are going to cut each wing off to look at its camber(profile view). With the wings fully forward at 0° sweepback you make a marking at each wing equidistant from the wing root at the fuselage. Then you saw off the left wing parallel to the fuselage straight from front to back. Then you sweep the remaining wing back to the 35° position and then saw off the other wing parallel to the fuselage which will be a different cut(longer actually).

Now compare the cambers of the wing and measure them as well from leading edge to trailing edge. This is the equivalent of the route that the airflow takes for 0° sweep and 35° sweep. Your measurements will show that the sweepback cut is longer, therefore there is a lower thickness to chord ratio.

What does that mean?

For a sweptback wing, the lower thickness to chord ratio=less acceleration of airflow=lower airflow speed=less drag at high mach numbers=less power required to reach a given higher mach number=less fuel burn=less money spent=more smiles).