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Revision as of 22:54, 31 October 2002 by Maury Markowitz (talk | contribs) (new article)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The delta-wing is a wing planform in the form of a large triangle. Its use was first pioneered by Alexander Lippich prior to WWII in Germany. The primary advantage of the design is that the wing's leading edge remains behind the shock wave generated by the nose of the aircraft when flying at supersonic speeds, which was a distinct improvement on traditional wing designs. Lippich studied a number of ramjet powered (sometimes coal-fueled!) delta-wing interceptor aircraft during the war, one progressing as far as a glider prototype.
After the war Lippich migrated to the US, where he ended up working at Convair. Here the other engineers became very interested in his interceptor designs, and started work on a larger version known as the F-92. This project was eventually cancelled as impractical, but a prototype flying testbed was almost complete by that point, and was later flown widely as the XF-92.
The design generated intense interest around the world. Soon almost every aircraft design, notably interceptors, were designed around a delta-wing. Examples include the Convair B-58 Hustler, the Avro Arrow and the MiG-21.
Deltas fell out of favour due to some undesirable characteristics, notably flow-separation at high angles of attack (swept-wings have similar problems), and high drag at low altitudes. As the performance of jet engines grew, fighers with more traditional planforms found they could perform almost as well as the deltas, but do so while manuvering much harder and at a wider range of altitudes.