Supersonic/hypersonic Lift To Drag Ratios
At very high speeds, lift to drag ratios tend to be lower. Concorde had a lift/drag ratio of around 7 at Mach 2, whereas a 747 is around 17 at about mach 0.85.
Dietrich Küchemann developed an empirical relationship for predicting L/D ratio for high Mach:
where M is the Mach number. Windtunnel tests have shown this to be roughly accurate.
Read more about this topic: Lift-to-drag Ratio
Famous quotes containing the words lift, drag and/or ratios:
“You had gained,
you outleapt them;
a sudden, swift lift of the reins,
a sudden, swift, taut grip of the reins,
as suddenly loosed,
you had gained.”
—Hilda Doolittle (18861961)
“The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me
Cruelly, being barren.
Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.”
—Sylvia Plath (19321963)
“Typography is not only a technology but is in itself a natural resource or staple, like cotton or timber or radio; and, like any staple, it shapes not only private sense ratios but also patterns of communal interdependence.”
—Marshall McLuhan (19111980)