Editing Area rule (section)

===Germany===
[[Image:Patent 932410 Seite 5.gif|thumb|right|[[Junkers (Aircraft)|Junkers]] [[patent drawing]] from March 1944]]
[[File:Modellphoto Ju287V1 1.png|thumb|The unusual arrangement of the [[Ju-287]] jet engines is due to the area rule.]]
The area rule was discovered by {{ill|Otto Frenzl|de|Otto Frenzl}} when comparing a swept wing with a w-wing with extreme high wave drag<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.akl.tu-darmstadt.de/media/arbeitskreis_luftverkehr/downloads_6/kolloquien/9kolloqium/heinzerlingflgelpfeilungundflchenregel.pdf | first = Werner | last = Heinzerling | publisher = Deutsches Museum | place = München, [[Germany|DE]] | language = de | title = Flügelpfeilung und Flächenregel, zwei grundlegende deutsche Patente der Flugzeugaerodynamik | trans-title = Wing sweep and area rule, two basic German patents of aircraft aerodynamics | access-date = 2010-11-06 | archive-date = 2011-07-19 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719100530/http://www.akl.tu-darmstadt.de/media/arbeitskreis_luftverkehr/downloads_6/kolloquien/9kolloqium/heinzerlingflgelpfeilungundflchenregel.pdf }}.</ref> while working on a transonic wind tunnel at [[Junkers (Aircraft)|Junkers]] works in Germany between 1943 and 1945. He wrote a description on 17 December 1943, with the title ''Anordnung von Verdrängungskörpern beim Hochgeschwindigkeitsflug'' ("Arrangement of Displacement Bodies in High-Speed Flight"); this was used in a patent filed in 1944.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Patent-Area-Rule.pdf | language = de | title = Patentschrift zur Flächenregel |trans-title=Patent for the area rule | date = 21 Mar 1944}}.</ref> The results of this research were presented to a wide circle in March 1944 by Theodor Zobel at the ''Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung'' (German Academy of Aeronautics Research) in the lecture "Fundamentally new ways to increase performance of high speed aircraft."<ref>{{Citation | first = Hans-Ulrich | last = Meier | language = de | title = Die Pfeilflügelentwicklung in Deutschland bis 1945 | year = 2006 |trans-title=The swept-wing development in Germany until 1945 | isbn = 3-7637-6130-6 | pages = 166–99| publisher = Bernard & Graefe }}.</ref>

Subsequent German wartime aircraft design took account of the discovery, evident in slim mid-fuselage of aircraft including the [[Messerschmitt P.1112]], [[Messerschmitt P.1106|P.1106]] and [[Focke-Wulf 1000x1000x1000]] type A long-range bomber, but also apparent in delta wing designs including the [[Henschel Hs 135]]. Several other researchers came close to developing a similar theory, notably [[Dietrich Küchemann]] who designed a tapered fighter that was dubbed the "Küchemann Coke Bottle" when it was discovered by US forces in 1946. In this case Küchemann arrived at the theory by studying airflow, notably the interference, or local flow streamlines, at the junction between a fuselage and [[swept wing]]. The fuselage was contoured, or waisted, to match the flow. The shaping requirement of this "near field" approach would also result from Whitcomb's later "far field" approach to drag reduction using his Sonic area rule.<ref>Design For Combat Aircraft, Ray Whitford 1987,{{ISBN|0 7106 0426 2}}, Fig.161</ref>