An explanation of how the swept wing works was offered by Robert T. Jones: "Assume a wing is a cylinder of uniform airfoil cross-section, chord and thickness and is placed in an airstream at an angle of yaw – i.e., it is swept back. Now, even if the local speed of the air on the upper surface of the wing becomes supersonic, a shock wave cannot form there because it would have to be a sweptback shock – swept at the same angle as the wing – i.e., it would be an oblique shock. Such an oblique shock cannot form until the velocity component normal to it becomes supersonic."[23]