Some Exact Calculations of the Lift and Drag Produced *by a Wedge in Supersonic Flow, Either Directly or by Interference

Exact inviscid theory is applied to a simple lifting configuration consisting of a wedge beneath a plane wing, both the wedge and the wing being terminated by a trailing edge which lies along a Mach cone. The efficiency of such an arrangement is compared with the efficiency of a wedge producing lift directly through incidence, as in the Nonweiler wing. The comparison is favourable to the interference arrangement provided the parameter M~CzJfl 2 is less than 0.65. In an Appendix it is shown that optimising the shape of the trailing edge makes the indirectly lifting wedge superior to the directly lifting wedge for values 4 2 of Moo CzJfloo between zero and unity.