Delta wing

A triangular aircraft wing with a broad root and swept-back leading edges, named for its resemblance to the Greek letter delta. Its shape supports high-speed flight and can generate lift through leading-edge vortices at high angles of attack.

Leading-edge vortex: A rotating flow structure formed when air separates along a sharp or highly swept wing edge. These vortices create extra lift over a delta wing at high angles of attack.
Concorde: A supersonic passenger airliner developed jointly by Britain and France. Its slender ogival delta wing was tailored for sustained supersonic cruise.
Swept wing: An aircraft wing whose leading edge angles backward from the fuselage. Both reduce compressibility effects, but a swept wing usually retains a more conventional spanwise planform.
Alexander Lippisch: A German aircraft designer known for pioneering work on tailless and delta-wing aircraft. His research established influential principles for practical delta-wing configurations.
Angle of attack: The angle between an aircraft wing’s reference line and the airflow approaching it. Increasing it strengthens delta-wing vortices until flow separation becomes limiting.
Dassault Mirage III: A French supersonic fighter aircraft introduced in the 1960s. Its tailless delta wing became a widely recognized combat-aircraft configuration.
Straight wing: An aircraft wing with little or no sweep along its leading edge. Straight wings favor low-speed efficiency, unlike the delta’s emphasis on high-speed performance.
Lippisch P.13a: An unbuilt German design for a tailless delta-wing interceptor powered by a coal-fired ramjet. It shows how delta geometry featured in late-war proposals for extreme speed.
Vortex lift: Lift generated by low-pressure vortices above a wing, especially at high angles of attack. It explains the delta wing’s strong lift in maneuvering and slow flight.
Avro Vulcan: A British jet-powered strategic bomber with a distinctive delta planform. Its large wing combined high-speed performance with long-range bomber requirements.

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