He Sparked Supersonic Flight With a Coke Bottle and File
Richard T. Whitcomb dreamed up techniques that made supersonic flight possible and innovations that endure on passenger jets today.
Mr. Whitcomb, who died Oct. 13 at age 88, solved a problem that had bedeviled aviation engineers, whose designs couldn't achieve supersonic flight even though they seemed to have enough power. Increased wind resistance at speeds approaching the speed of sound was the problem. Engineers took to calling it the "sound barrier."
Mr. Whitcomb's solution was to taper the airplane's fuselage in a manner he often likened to a Coke bottle, which dramatically reduced drag. Within three years of Mr. Whitcomb's discovery in 1951, U.S. Air Force interceptors were flying at supersonic speeds.
It was the first of three revolutionary advances Mr. Whitcomb designed. Another was a new and more efficient wing shape used today on nearly all passenger jets. And he designed "winglets" -- small drag-reducing vertical panels found at the wing-tips of many commercial jets.
"I think he was the most significant aeronautical engineer operating in the second half of 20th century," says Tom Crouch, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "His fingerprints are on every jet plane flying today."
Mr. Whitcomb made his discoveries as a government engineer at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., which had developed state-of-the-art wind tunnels where he could test his ideas in supersonic winds. He would spend hours at his desk chain-smoking.
In the 1960s Mr. Whitcomb developed the specially shaped wing known as the supercritical wing, an improved design that increases fuel efficiency at near-supersonic speeds. He filed down the model edges, flattening the top of the wing and rounding the bottom to find the optimal shape. He had a reputation for being able to visualize airflow...
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Mr. Whitcomb, who died Oct. 13 at age 88, solved a problem that had bedeviled aviation engineers, whose designs couldn't achieve supersonic flight even though they seemed to have enough power. Increased wind resistance at speeds approaching the speed of sound was the problem. Engineers took to calling it the "sound barrier."
Mr. Whitcomb's solution was to taper the airplane's fuselage in a manner he often likened to a Coke bottle, which dramatically reduced drag. Within three years of Mr. Whitcomb's discovery in 1951, U.S. Air Force interceptors were flying at supersonic speeds.
It was the first of three revolutionary advances Mr. Whitcomb designed. Another was a new and more efficient wing shape used today on nearly all passenger jets. And he designed "winglets" -- small drag-reducing vertical panels found at the wing-tips of many commercial jets.
"I think he was the most significant aeronautical engineer operating in the second half of 20th century," says Tom Crouch, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "His fingerprints are on every jet plane flying today."
Mr. Whitcomb made his discoveries as a government engineer at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., which had developed state-of-the-art wind tunnels where he could test his ideas in supersonic winds. He would spend hours at his desk chain-smoking.
In the 1960s Mr. Whitcomb developed the specially shaped wing known as the supercritical wing, an improved design that increases fuel efficiency at near-supersonic speeds. He filed down the model edges, flattening the top of the wing and rounding the bottom to find the optimal shape. He had a reputation for being able to visualize airflow...