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Aerospace glossary

Küchemann limit

Also called Küchemann barrier

An empirical ceiling on the best lift-to-drag ratio achievable at a given Mach number M, often written as (L/D)max ≈ 4(M + 3)/M. At Mach 6 it gives ≈6, which caps the range of hypersonic aircraft.

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Aircraft performance, aerodynamics and hypersonics

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