Class of shockfree airfoils producing the same surface pressure

The feasibility of shockfree airfoils producing the same surface pressure over a wide range of operating Mach numbers is investigated. Numerical results are presented for a series of airfoils corresponding to a known base-line shockfree pressure; it is shown that physically acceptable airfoils can be found. The results are significant in the engineering of adaptive wings aimed at fixing, throughout a range of Mach numbers, pressure distributions with desirable loading and boundary layer separation characteristics.