Swept Wing - History

History

The first aircraft with swept wings were those designed by the British designer J.W.Dunne in the first decade of the 20th century. Dunne successfully employed severely swept wings in his tailless aircraft as a means of creating positive longitudinal static stability. Historically, many low-speed aircraft have had swept wings in order to avoid problems with their center of gravity, to move the wing spar into a more convenient location, or to improve the sideways view from the pilot's position. For instance, the Douglas DC-3 had a slight sweep to the leading edge of its wing. The wing sweep in low-speed aircraft was not intended to help with transonic performance, and although most have a small amount of wing sweep they are rarely described as swept wing aircraft. The Curtiss XP-55 was the first American swept wing airplane, although it was not considered successful. The swept wing had appeared before World War I, conceived as a means of permitting the design of safe, stable, and tailless flying wings. It imposed “self-damping” inherent stability upon the flying wing, and, as a result, many flying wing gliders and some powered aircraft appeared in the interwar years.