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The chief motivating factor in airplane design, throughout the history of commercial aviation, has been increased speed. Significant advances in the supercritical flow technology now make higher speeds possible without economic penalties. Boeing studies in the transonic speed regime indicate that a family of economically viable transonic airplanes can be developed. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the constraints imposed on an airplane propulsion system by transonic cruise speeds and to explore some ways to satisfy them. As the design Mach number of an airplane is increased above the 0.85 level toward 1.0, good airplane performance depends increasingly on careful tailoring of the propulsion installation and its integration into the overall configuration to establish a good compromise between drag, internal nacelle performance, and the practical considerations that produce an excellent airplane.

A working knowledge of swept lightning strikes has become a necessity for the aircraft designer involved in lightning protection of aircraft incorporating new structural concepts that depart from the conventional riveted aluminum airframe. Swept strokes have been simulated in the laboratory to determine realistic protection criteria for components. Measurements of the maximum swept stroke dwell time on titanium and aluminum sheet are reported, as well as an anaylsis of various techniques to improve the resistance of fuel tank skin panels to swept stroke effects.