text: Oblique shocks are often preferable in engineering applications when compared to normal shocks.  This can be attributed to the fact that using one or a combination of oblique shock waves results in more favourable post-shock conditions (smaller increase in entropy, less stagnation pressure loss, etc.) when compared to utilizing a single normal shock.  An example of this technique can be seen in the design of supersonic aircraft engine intakes or supersonic inlets. A type of these inlets is wedge-shaped to compress air flow into the combustion chamber while minimizing thermodynamic losses.  Early supersonic aircraft jet engine intakes were designed using compression from a single normal shock, but this approach caps the maximum achievable Mach number to roughly 1.6.  Concorde (which first flew in 1969) used variable geometry wedge-shaped intakes to achieve a maximum speed of Mach 2.2. A similar design was used on the F-14 Tomcat (the F-14D was first delivered in 1994) and achieved a maximum speed of Mach 2.34.
  Many supersonic aircraft wings are designed around a thin diamond shape.  Placing a diamond-shaped object at an angle of attack relative to the supersonic flow streamlines will result in two oblique shocks propagating from the front tip over the top and bottom of the wing, with Prandtl-Meyer expansion fans created at the two corners of the diamond closest to the front tip.  When correctly designed, this generates lift.