Editing Delta wing (section)

===Close-coupled canard===
[[File:Saab viggen underside.jpg|thumb|The [[Saab Viggen]] pioneered the close-coupled canard]]
{{main article|Canard (aeronautics)}}
Through the 1960s, the [[Sweden|Swedish]] aircraft manufacturer [[Saab AB]] developed a close-coupled canard delta configuration, placing a delta foreplane just in front of and above the main delta wing.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Green | first1 = W | last2 = Swanborough | first2 = G | title = The complete book of fighters | publisher = Salamander | year = 1994 | pages=514 to 516}}.</ref> [[Patent]]ed in 1963, this configuration was flown for the first time on the company's [[Saab 37 Viggen|Viggen]] combat aircraft in 1967. The close coupling modifies the airflow over the wing, most significantly when flying at high angles of attack. In contrast to the classic tail-mounted elevators, the canards add to the total lift as well as stabilising the airflow over the main wing. This enables more extreme manoeuvres, improves low-speed handling and reduces the takeoff run and landing speed. During the 1960s, this configuration was considered to be radical, but Saab's design team judged that it was the optimal approach available for satisfying the conflicting performance demands for the Viggen, which including favourable [[STOL]] performance, supersonic speed, low turbulence sensitivity during low level flight, and efficient lift for subsonic flight.<ref name="saab 60" >[http://saabgroup.com/about-company/history/1960s/ "1960s."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629225459/https://saabgroup.com/about-company/history/1960s/ |date=2020-06-29 }} ''Company History'', Saab. Retrieved 6 March 2016.</ref><ref name="bomber 244">Gunston and Gilchrist 1993, p. 244.</ref>

The close-coupled canard has since become common on supersonic fighter aircraft. Notable examples include the multinational [[Eurofighter Typhoon]], France's [[Dassault Rafale]], Saab's own [[Gripen]] (a successor to the Viggen) and Israel's [[IAI Kfir]]. One of the main reasons for its popularity has been the high level of agility in manoeuvring that it is capable of.<ref name="warwick 1260" >Warwick 1980, p. 1260.</ref><ref>Roskam 2002, p. 206.</ref>