Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2016
A method is suggested for designing the shape of the plan form of an unwarped swept-back wing so as to control the magnitude of the singularity that occurs in the chordwise loading distribution at the leading edge. At a Mach number of unity it is possible to do this simply and directly by an approximate application of linearised lifting-surface theory. Details are given of three families of wing plan forms, of varying sweep and aspect ratio, in all of which the strength of the leading-edge singularity is held constant near the wing tips, behind the Mach line from the root trailing edge. The local chordwise load distributions have been calculated in detail for several of these wings and it is found that in all cases the loading curves become effectively independent of spanwise position over that part of the span for which the singularity is constant.