The effects of taper on the supervelocities on three-dimensional wings at zero incidence

Abstract

Relationships have been derived for expressing the velocities on three-dimensional tapered wings at zero incidence in terms of the velocities on untapered infinite swept wings. The theoretical investigation of the effects of taper is confined to simple wings having aerofoil sections formed by cubic or parabolic arcs ; some experimental evidence is given to show that the results of this investigation can probably be applied quantitatively to wings having conventional aerofoil sections. The results given in this report show that plan-form and thickness taper have a marked effect on the velocities near the centre of a wing, but that these effects decrease with increase of sweepback. A calculation method is outlined in section 4.2.6 of the text for applying the results obtained for wings having parabolic-arc aerofoil sections, to wings having arbitrary section shapes.