These techniques were quickly put to use by aircraft designers. One common solution to the problem of wave drag was to use a swept wing, which had actually been developed before World War II and used on some German wartime designs. Sweeping the wing makes it appear thinner and longer in the direction of the airflow, making a conventional teardrop wing shape closer to that of the von Kármán ogive, while still remaining useful at lower speeds where curvature and thickness are important.