Abstract
A SERIES of comprehensive experiments upon the possibilities of high-speed flight has been carried out in the Langley Field High Speed Wind Tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the U.S.A. Air speeds up to 800 miles an hour, which is faster than the speed of sound, have been reached. It has been definitely established that with the present conventional form of wing section there is so great an increase in drag at about 600 miles an hour that it will be impossible to carry sufficient power to overcome it, assuming the present methods of conversion of fuel to air thrust. This is confirmed by experience with high-speed propellers, the blade tips of which may easily be travelling at a peripheral speed approaching the velocity of sound. In such cases their outer portions may be actually exerting a negative effect. The delicate mechanisms of the human body do not appear to be susceptible to steady high speeds, but they react to accelerations at much lower figures. This case arises often during flight, when every turn is an angular acceleration. It has been established that the maximum speed that the human body can stand during an average sharp turn is about 300 miles per hour. The present speed record for flight in a straight line is an average 408·8 miles an hour, although speeds up to 415·2 miles an hour for short periods have been recorded.
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High Speed and Flight. Nature 130, 123 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130123d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130123d0