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« Last post by AeroFranz on Today at 11:06:08 am »
I think we can agree that the physics dictate that if you have more sweep, lower CL, thinner airfoils (supercritical in particular), you're going to fly faster before hitting MDD. The B-2 does well on several of those accounts, others like t/c, i don't know. I'd just be wary of applying any equation obtained through regression for cases that may be outside of the database used.
But generally speaking, an axiom in aircraft design is that you don't design in a capability that is not useful if it comes at the cost of something else more important. Unless the customer determines that they need the capability, it's much better to barely meet the requirements and get the smallest/cheapest aircraft you can. Maybe someone has better knowledge of what the thought at the time was regarding very high speed terrain following.