Recent skin friction techniques for compressible flows

A brief review is given of developments over the last decade in techniques for the measurement of skin friction in compressible airflows. Emphasis is placed on mean measurements beneath turbulent boundary layers in the supersonic and hypersonic flow regimes. Recent improvements in existing techniques such as the skin friction balance, Preston tube, sublayer fence, and heat transfer analogy are discussed. New or potential techniques including optical and acoustic measurements are also treated. Finally, new results are presented on the adaptation of the recently-developed laser interferometer skin friction meter for use in high-speed wind tunnels.