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An aeronautical engineer, in 1951 Whitcomb was working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA -- the predecessor of NASA), when he looked into a problem plaguing jet aircraft: drag. As planes get closer and closer to the speed of sound, drag increases, reducing performance and increasing fuel consumption. Whitcomb had the ability to "see air," colleagues say -- he could envision in his mind how air flowed over surfaces, as if he had a mental wind tunnel. He realized that the area where the wings connected to the fuselage was responsible for the drag, so he simply "cut it out" -- he made the fuselage more slender in that spot. The resulting "coke bottle" or "wasp waist" shape is known as the area rule, and instantly added 100 mph to planes' top speeds, with no increase in fuel consumption. Whitcomb was just 34 years old. The accomplishment was quickly hailed: in 1954, he was awarded the National Aeronautic Association's Collier Trophy, and in 1973 was awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for science and engineering. Whitcomb also was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Academy of Engineering. After figuring out the area rule, Whitcomb went on to design improved wings for planes, including the "supercritical wing" and "winglets", which further increased jets' speed, stability, and fuel economy. "His intellectual fingerprints are evident on virtually every commercial aircraft flying today," said Tom Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum. Whitcomb retired from NASA in 1980, but continued consulting for them and aerospace companies, and would rarely bother to cash the paychecks sent to him. "There's been a continual drive in me ever since I was a teenager to find a better way to do everything," Whitcomb once told an interviewer. "If a human mind can figure out a better way to do something, let's do it. I can't just sit around. I have to think." He died October 13 from pneumonia. He was 88.
From This is True for 18 October 2009
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