ORIGINAL: Jet_Plane
ORIGINAL: rmh
Gee whiz -a lot of 1930's bipes used swept panels and were stable yet very aerobatic and extremely easy to fly .
I am not any good on textbook theory (cain't reed) but some sweep INCREASES stability.
Sweep was used on biplanes, usually on the top wing, to allow access for the pilot to get into the cockpit and to have good visibility while still having the CG in the right place. Similar in concept to why some two seat sailplanes use forward sweep.
Steve
Yep - very common fix on biplanes
Just like the British bomber which ended up with swept wings - to get CG correct- back in 1940
Much of the carefully engineered stuff got swept (pun) under the rug when necessity took precedence
for example the perfect ellipse Spit wings - got the tips axed on later Marks
The vaunted P51 airfoil?
again, swapped over to a rather humdrum profile after W11. just as good -
About the only perfect design concept has proven to be "make it as light as possible"