The Sukhoi Su-47 being followed by two Su-27s. The Su-47 uses a forward wing sweep, while the Su-27s sport a more conventional backward-swept design.
A swept wing is a wing angled either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than perpendicular to the fuselage.
Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigated in Germany as early as 1935 by Albert Betz and Adolph Busemann, finding application just before the end of the Second World War. It has the effect of delaying the shock waves and accompanying aerodynamic drag rise caused by fluid compressibility near the speed of sound, improving performance. Swept wings are therefore almost always used on jet aircraft designed to fly at these speeds.
The term "swept wing" is normally used to mean "swept back", but variants include forward sweep, variable sweep wings and oblique wings in which one side sweeps forward and the other back. The delta wing is also aerodynamically a form of swept wing.
A sweptwing is a wing angled either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than perpendicular to the fuselage. Swept wings have been flown...
high-winged aircraft often are slightly anhedral, and transport-category swept-wing aircraft are equipped with yaw dampers. A similar phenomenon can happen...
structurally-efficient wing, it has been common for low-speed designs since the very first days of the Wright Flyer. Swept back (aka "sweptwing"): The wing sweeps rearwards...
delta wing and minimal area outboard make it structurally efficient. It can be built stronger, stiffer and at the same time lighter than a sweptwing of...
Wing fences, also known as boundary layer fences and potential fences are fixed aerodynamic devices attached to aircraft wings. Often seen on swept-wing...
is swept forward while the opposite tip is swept aft. By changing its sweep angle in this way, drag can be reduced at high speed (with the wingswept) without...
aircraft Nord 1402/1405 Gerfaut – Delta wing research aircraft Nord 1500 Griffon – Ramjet Nord 1601 – Sweptwing research aircraft Payen PA-22 – Tandem...
sweep the wing backwards or forwards to reduce drag from supersonic shock waves as they begin to form. The sweptwing is just a straight wingswept backwards...
Carver Meadows Frost in October 1945. The DH 108 featured a tailless, sweptwing with a single vertical stabilizer, similar to the layout of the wartime...
jet bomber built in Nazi Germany in 1944. It featured a novel forward-sweptwing, and the first two prototypes (which were aerodynamic testbeds for the...
straight wing Hawker P.1062 sweptwing derivative of P1040 Hawker P.1063 Hawker P.1064 sweptwing idea with high tailplane Hawker P.1065 sweptwing with rocket...
or wash-out, reducing the angle of attack towards the wing tips, together with a swept-back wing planform. The Dunne D.5 incorporated this principle and...
carrier Variable-sweep wing or "swing wings" that allow outstretched wings during low-speed flight (i.e., take-off and landing) and swept back wings for high-speed...
on October 26, 1958. With versions produced until 1979, the 707 was a sweptwing quadjet with podded engines. Its larger fuselage cross-section allowed...
Focke-Wulf Ta 183 "Huckebein" – a planned sweptwing turbojet fighter. Focke-Wulf Ta 283 – a planned sweptwing ramjet and rocket-powered fighter. Heinkel...
jet development, up to 2004, into five stages; pioneer (straight wing), sweptwing, transonic, the 1960s and 1970s on, culminating in types such as the...
and it was the first Western European fighter to be produced with a sweptwing after the Second World War, only being preceded in Western Europe as a...
The McDonnell F3H Demon is a subsonic swept-wing carrier-based jet fighter aircraft designed and produced by the American manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft...