Sweep angle

A swept wing is a wing which angles either backward or, occasionally, forward, from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Wing sweep has the effect of delaying the shock waves and accompanying aerodynamic drag rise caused by fluid compressibility near the speed of sound, improving performance. Swept wings are therefore often used on jet aircraft designed to fly at these speeds. Swept wings are also sometimes used for other reasons, such as structural convenience or visibility.

Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigated in Germany as early as 1935, but it found no application until just before the end of the Second World War. Swept wings became common on advanced first-generation jet fighters like the MiG-15 and F-86 Sabre, which demonstrated a decisive superiority over the slower first generation of straight-wing jet fighters during the Korean War. Since then, swept wings have become almost universal on all but the slowest jets (such as the A-10).

The term "swept wing" is normally used to mean "swept back", but other swept variants include forward sweep, variable sweep wings and oblique wings in which one side sweeps forward and the other back. The delta wing also incorporates the same advantages as part of its layout.

The characteristic "sweep angle" is normally measured by drawing a line from root to tip, 25% of the way back from the leading edge, and comparing that to the perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. Typical sweep angles vary from 0 for a straight-wing aircraft, to 45 degrees or more for fighters and other high-speed designs.

Early aircraft adhered to the basic design of square wings at right angles to the body of the machine, but there were experimentalists who explored other geometries to achieve better aerodynamic results. The swept wing geometry appeared before World War I, and was conceived as a means of permitting the design of safe, stable, and tailless flying wings. It imposed "self-damping" inherent stability upon the flying wing, and, as a result, many flying wing gliders and some powered aircraft appeared in the interwar years. One of the earliest swept wing designs was used by José Weiss to construct a swept-wing tail-less glider in 1908 in England. He followed this up with a version powered by an Anzani engine driving two propellers.

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