A classic example of an aircraft incorporating area ruling was the Blackburn Buccaneer. Note the large fuselage bulge aft of the wing and the rear-fuselage clam-shell airbrakes. These features reduced the drag at the high subsonic speeds that the Buccaneer was designed to operate at.
Concorde was deliberately limited to Mach 2.2 so that relatively conventional aluminium alloys could be used. Nevertheless, at Mach 2 skin temperatures were well above 120°C due to skin friction kinetic heating.
Variable-area inlets and nozzles were used to achieve a well-integrated engine installation on Concorde. As can be seen in these diagrams, the inlet is wide open at low speed but closes down to correctly position the shockwaves at Mach 2.2. Notice that in the cruise 75% of the thrust felt on the airframe comes from the duct ahead of the engine. This is typical of good supersonic designs.
In order to withstand the effects of kinetic heating experienced at its Mach 3+ cruising speed the SR-71 was constructed with large amounts of heat-resistant titanium.
Maj Chuck Yeager flew supersonically at Mach 1.04 on October 14, 1947 in Bell X-1 46-062. Among the most important phenomena studied with the X-1s were exploration of the transonic speed regime, and the affects of supersonic flight on stability and control.
