The straight wing is found mostly on small, low-speed airplanes. General Aviation airplanes often have straight wings. These wings provide good lift at low speeds, but are not suited to high speeds. Since the wing is perpendicular to the airflow it has a tendency to create appreciable drag. However, thestraight wing provides good, stable flight. It is cheaper and can be made lighter, too.

The sweepback wing is the wing of choice for most high-speed airplanes made today. Sweep wings create less drag, but are somewhat more unstable at low speeds. The high-sweep wing delays the formation of shock waves on the airplane as it nears the speed of sound. The amount of sweep of the wing depends on the purpose of the airplane. A commercial airliner has a moderate sweep. This results in lessdrag while maintaining stability at lower speeds. High speed airplanes (like fighters) have greater sweep. These airplanes are not very stable at low speeds. They take off and descend for landing at a high rate of speed.

The forward-sweep wing is a wing design that has yet to make it into mass production. An airplane (like the X-29) is highly maneuverable, but it is also highly unstable. A computer-based control system must be used in the X-29 to help the pilot fly.

Simple Delta Wing (top) and Complex Delta Wing(bottom)A delta wing looks like a large triangle from above. Because of the high sweep, airplanes with this wing can reach high speeds - many supersonic airplanes have delta wings. Because of the high sweep, the landing speeds of airplanes with delta wings are very fast. This wing shape is found on the supersonic transport Concorde.