Boundary Layer Control for Low Drag A Review of the Present Situation and an Assessment of the Potentialities of Laminarization Techniques Available to Purchase

Since the end of the Second World War, many spectacular advances have been made in aeronautics, thanks chiefly to the development of more powerful and economical jet engines. As to the parasitic drag of manned aircraft, progress has been confined to reducing unfavourable compressibility effects (area rule, Whitcombe bodies); methods to suppress separation have been developed but no new methods to reduce the drag resulting from turbulent boundary layers developing over the exposed surfaces have as yet found practical application.