Career
In the 1950s, Whitcomb proposed his area rule as regards the drag produced by aircraft on themselves when flying near the speed of sound. Its impact on aircraft design was immediate: the prototype Convair YF-102, for example, was found not to be capable of exceeding the speed of sound in level flight. This was rectified by re-sculpting the fuselage. For his insight, Whitcomb won the Collier Trophy in 1954.
In the 1960s, Whitcomb developed the supercritical airfoil. This was followed in the 1970s by his development of winglets, devices placed on wingtips to reduce the vortices produced there and the drag they induced. These improved the aerodynamic efficiency of wings and today are commonplace on airliners, where they reduce fuel consumption, as well as on sailplanes, where they improve glide ratio.
Whitcomb died in Newport News, Virginia.
Read more about this topic: Richard T. Whitcomb
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)