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The radical design is under the skin. OK, in and under the skin. "Its materials (by weight) are: 50% composite, 20% aluminum, 15% titanium, 10% steel, 5% other." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/787_Dreamliner#Features

The Concorde had a delta wing so it could fly supersonically with acceptable range (fuel economy vs. tankage). The trade-off for that speed was horrible fuel economy and poor takeoff and landing characteristics (extremely high drag - it had to use afterburners to get airborne).

WRT the Comet, airframers don't put engines in wings because they are a bugger to service there.



A big part of the reason for hanging the engines is actually because it means you can make the wings less robust.

If you have in-wing engines they generally have to be near the root (where the wing connects to the fuselage) because engines are large, wings taper and wings shouldn't be too fat. Under wing engines can be hung wherever you like, within reason.

If you simplify things a bit you can think of a wing as a cantilever which supports half the weight of the plane, balanced by an equal upwards force spread out along the whole wing.

By shifting weight towards the middle of the wing, as you can do by moving an engine outboard, some of your weight is no longer at the end of the lever but instead is closer (on average) to where the upwards force is being applied. This decreases the load you have to design for even though the weight remains the same.


Engines are not just "hanged wherever one likes". There's an optimal point along the wing where airflow entering the engine will provide optimal performance, and it's not near the wing root.


It's pretty much a given that anything you read about aerodynamics on an Internet forum will be a massive generalization made to illustrate a simplified version of the point.

Look at the rubbish people keep on repeating about the reasons for inherent instability for a prime example!




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