Highly cited literature of high-speed compressible flow research

High-speed flow research has been sponsored and performed at differing levels of effort since the late 1800s. For example, hypersonic research has experienced numerous cycles since the 1950s, with various periods of high research activity, followed by equally long periods of very low activity. This lack of continuity in high-speed flow research has led to a situation where researchers of one “generation” often do not know what the researchers of previous “generations” have done, mainly due to large losses of institutional knowledge in government, industry, and academic organizations. Therefore, a chronically weak area in research papers, reports, and reviews is the complete identification of critical background documents that form the building blocks and intellectual heritage for modern compressible flow research. A method for systematically determining these critical references is presented in the context of its application to high-speed flow using Citation-Assisted Background, which is based on the assumption that many critical documents tend to be highly cited within the literature, although not necessarily recently. While Citation-Assisted Background is a highly systematic approach for identifying critical references, it is not a substitute for the judgement of the researchers, but rather complements their expertise. In this critical review of high-speed compressible flow, important documents have been identified using Citation-Assisted Background, but other documents have been added by the authors to enhance the picture provided by the highly-cited documents.