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The "area rule" or Coke bottle fuselage was known in the 1940's, and to my understanding was first used in the Grumman F8 Bearcat, a high performance propeller aircraft that was a composite of the best ideas then available, taken from German, Japanese, and Allied aircraft and rolled into one new plane. Unfortunately, the Bearcat came at the end of the war, and propeller designs were dumped as the new jets came in. Area rule showed up in the F-106 et al in the 1950s. See also B-58, T-38, etc..
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