Supercritical wing

A supercritical wing is a kind of wing designed particularly to fly at supersonic speeds. It was invented and patented by Richard Whitcomb at the NASA Langley Research Center in the 1960s.

The wing uses a new type of airfoil. It is less rounded on the top than a conventional airfoil and rounded underneath, in order to reduce the strength and delay the formation of shock waves at transonic speeds while still producing lift. This results in reduced drag.

The supercritical wing was first tested on the TF-8A Crusader