Wing design for minimum drag with practical constraints

General design characteristics of wings that offer minimum drag while satisfying a variety of practical constraints are sought, including primarily a constraint upon structural weight The essential elements of aerodynamics and structures, when combined with analytical optimization, lead to a series of solutions for lift, chord, and thickness distributions across the span Although the optimized wings do not differ radically from current practice in these distributions, they can offer significantly lower drag For high subsonic wings of given structural weight, elasticity, and maximum load factor, forward rather than aft sweep promises a reduction in cruise induced drag of about 10% Wings whose weight is a large fraction of the total lift, as in sailplanes, may realize larger reductions