Moderate to high sweep is a feature of most modern aircraft, especially of military planes. When the wing is thin, with high leading-edge curvature, even modest incidence can lead to separation, unless elaborate flow-control measures are taken. Depending on the sweep, different regimes of complex separation phenomena arise on the suction side. At low sweep, the flow can exhibit some characteristics akin to 'closed' (bubble) separation, observed in two-dimensional geometries. At high sweep, separation is of the 'open' (vortex) type, characterised by multiple vortical structures and separation and reattachment lines on the suction side. The boundary between the two regimes is not distinct, however. At the line of separation, the flow may or may not be turbulent. Contamination from the spanwise motion favours transition on attachment, but close to the wing root (or apex) transition may occur in the separated shear layer. In the case of vortex separation, the flow above the wing is highly swirling and the vortex contains a core that moves at high speed in the axial direction. The body forces associated with the swirl can make the vortex super-critical, strongly damp turbulence and hence reduce the spreading rate of the vortex. Secondary separation zones also arise on the wing, adding to the ABSRACT The paper investigates, by means of a simulation methodology, the flow separating from a 40 degrees backward-swept wing at 9 degrees incidence and Reynolds number of 210,000, based on the wing-root chord length. The Simulation corresponds to LDA, PIV and suction-side-topology measurements for the same geometry, conducted by other investigators specifically to provide validation data. The finest block-structured mesh contains 23·6 million nodes and is organised in 256 blocks to maximise mesh quality and facilitate parallel solution on multi-processor machines. The near-wall layer is resolved, to a thickness of about y + = 20, by means of parabolised URANS equations that include an algebraic eddyviscosity model and from which the wall-shear stress is extracted to provide an unsteady boundary condition for the simulation. The numerical solution is in good agreement with the experimental behaviour over the 50-70% inboard portion of the span, but the simulation fails to resolve some complex features close to the wing tip, due to a premature leading-edge vortex breakdown and loss in vortex coherence. The comparisons and their discussion provide useful insight into various physical characteristics of this complex separated wing flow.