| Quote: Originally Posted by teryn | | | | |
| No, it's NOT to do with frontal area. In aerodyanmics, you will learn not to jump to intuitive and the conclusions within easy grasp, cause those usually are not right. If it was frontal area, you would just make the wings shorter, right? | |
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Not entirely true, with a swept wing you "could" maintain the same amount of lifting surface while decreasing the frontal area thus decreasing drag, can't do that by shortening the wing. Not saying this is the reason, just sayin'
I didn't read Propstriker's link, but OverTemp's explanation is extremely close to the way I remember it.
BTW: Yes, I realize I opened myself up for a lesson in aerodynamics.