Is wing sweep needed on supersonic aircraft? Area rule states that bodies with the same crossectional area distribution have the same drag. Does that mean I could use a straight wing on mach 1.2 aircraft with performance as high as sweep winged plane as long as they have the same area distribution?
Sweep is not strictly required, but helpful to increase supersonic L/D. Just witness the length to which aircraft manufacturers went to sweep wings for Mach 2+ flight. However, sweep comes with its own set of problems.