An iterative method for calculation of the loading on a thin unswept wing

Abstract

A pilot method has been developed, and an EMA computer program written, for the iterative calculation of the load distribution on a thin wing with prescribed warp (downwash). At each iteration the downwash due to the current loading iterate is computed using the author's existing program, and loading corrections are calculated from the downwash difference field until this is sufficiently small. The method has been applied to two rectangular wings of aspect ratio 6, one a flat plate, the other with parabolic camber, and except for a small region near the tip leading edge, has been found to converge quickly, 3 iterations being sufficient to obtain overall accuracy better than 1 per cent in both cases. The method awaits extension to deal with a swept wing.