7/30/2023 0 Comments Supercritical airfoil![]() ![]() Some parts of an airplane, the wings in particular, have a shape which causes the air flowing around them to accelerate. ![]() Thus, the economic demise of the Concorde and reason all modern airliners fly at a speed slower than then speed of sound.Įven though shockwaves begin to form when the airflow around an aircraft reaches the speed of sound, this doesn’t mean that flying just under the speed of sound will keep an aircraft shockwave free. This causes a much higher fuel burn for a fairly small increase in speed.Īs a result, supersonic passenger travel is extremely expensive because of the huge amount of fuel supersonic aircraft have to burn to push their way through the shockwave. Because the drag rise caused by supersonic flow around an aircraft is so sharp, the aircraft’s engines have to produce significantly more thrust to push through the air with shockwaves than without them. These shockwaves, among other unfavorable things, greatly increase the force of drag on the aircraft. When airflow around an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound, shockwaves are generated. So, what is a supercritical wing and how does it work? Canadair and Lear were among the first aircraft manufactures to apply a supercritical wing to a commercial aircraft, which is likely why the supercritical wing on the CRJ series aircraft is more pronounced than other transport category aircraft. Since then, adaptations of supercritical wing technology have been built into nearly every transport category aircraft. The modern supercritical wing was first flown on a modified F-8 Crusader during a NASA research project in the early 1970s. This eventually led to the development of the supercritical wing. In the early ‘70s, when the economic demand for cheap high-speed air travel became greater, research began into a new type of wing which would perform more efficiently at near supersonic speeds. These challenges were eventually compensated for in the designs of supersonic military aircraft, but transport category aircraft were left orphaned with wing designs from the days Wilbur and Orville. Two of the most notable of these effects are the sharp increase in drag caused by the formation of a shockwave, and the rearward shift of the center of lift generated by the wing. It was quickly noted that when an aircraft approaches and passes the speed of sound, many unfavorable things begin to happen. In essence, the supercritical wing has revolutionized modern air transportation.ĭuring early testing in the 1940s and 1950s into supersonic flight, it became apparent that flight into the supersonic regime presented some serious engineering problems. This mid 1970s invention, though seldom discussed, has allowed airliners to fly faster and farther, while burning less fuel. In this post, I am going to shed a little light on the supercritical wing and discuss how it works, and how it compares to a conventional wing. In fact, the CRJ series of aircraft incorporates one of the most pronounced examples in the entire fleet of transport aircraft of a specially designed wing type called the supercritical wing. ![]() The reason for my astonishment was because the wing of the CRJ was designed significantly differently than any other plane I had flown before. ![]() “Wow, it really is curved on the bottom!” I still remember how surprised I was when I took my first look at the wing of the CRJ. ![]()
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