Langley airfoil-research program

Abstract

An overview of past, present, and future airfoil research activities at the Langley Research Center is given. The immediate past and future occupy most of the discussion; however, past accomplishments and milestones going back to the early NACA years are dealt with in a broad-brush way to give a better perspective of current developments and programs. In addition to the historical perspective, a short description of the facilities which are now being used in the airfoil program is given. This is followed by a discussion of airfoil developments, advances in airfoil design and analysis tools (mostly those that have taken place over the past 5 or 6 years), and tunnel-wall-interference predictive methods and measurements. Future research requirements are treated.