Until his retirement from NASA he worked on aircraft energy efficiency and new winglet configurations. Historical Note The supercritical wing concept was developed by Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb of the ...

Aeronautical Engineer Richard Whitcomb literally changed the shape of modern aviation when he designed the “Coke bottle” fuselage — a narrow-waisted plane body that helps high-speed jets to ...

RICHARD WHITCOMB, 88 His Discovery Forever Changed Jet Design. October 15, 2009. By T. Rees Shapiro. Mechanical engineer Richard Whitcomb, 88, who died of pneumonia Oct. 13 in Newport News, Va ...

In the 1970s Whitcomb came up with winglets, ... Whitcomb received the National Medal of Science from President Richard Nixon in 1973, the U.S. Air Force Exceptional Service medal in 1955, ...