Word: sweepback
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...cruise any great distance, or land slowly on small or rough runways. The F-111 avoids these failings by using variable sweep wings, a difficult design concept that has been tried experimentally but never used in an operational airplane. When the wings are fully extended, they have hardly any sweepback, and the airplane looks oddly oldfashioned. In this condition it will fly with old-fashioned slowness. Then, as speed increases, the wings are swept backward, reducing lift and drag, and permitting speed to increase still more...
...gracefully modeled Sabre, the F-ioo is a rather homely, chunky job. Most of its workhorse look comes from its wide tailpipe and the wide air intake in its nose, which give it a chopped-off look. The wings are swept back at 45° (the Sabre's sweepback: 35°), and the engine is a Pratt & Whitney J-57-7 turbojet, which delivers 10,000 Ibs. of thrust with afterburner (the Sabre's thrust: about...
Unlike most fast new jets, the Starfire (over 600 m.p.h.) has straight instead of swept-back wings. Sweepback is meant to minimize the dangerous effects of shock waves at high speed. The same result can be accomplished by making the wings much thinner-a difficult job because thin wings tend to be weak and flexible. Lockheed gets around the obstacle by chewing large parts of the wing-skin, stiffeners, etc.-out of heavy slabs of aluminum...
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