Why do airplane wings have round leading edges?

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I don’t understand all the internet explanations using terms like “Range of attack” “Stall speed”

I’m trying to understand why it matters that the wing has a blunt front, if just angling a flat sheet slightly upwards should in my theory still lift it up at speed.

Although those round edges intuitively make sense somehow, i just want to understand why they work.

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9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

1. It’s not all about minimizing parasitic drag. You also have to maximize *lift*, and thicker wings make more lift at lower angles of attack. There’s a reason you only see thin leading edges on old super-sonic fighters.

2. The wings have a lot inside them like fuel and mechanical components so they can’t be thin like you describe. Given how thick they *need* to be, the size of the wing required to give that sharp taper you describe would be prohibitively large.

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