PDAS home > Contents > NACA Airfoil > History
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During the 1930's several families of airfoils and camber lines were developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Many of these airfoil shapes have been successfully used over the years as wing and tail sections for general aviation and military aircraft, as well as propellers and helicopter rotors.

The ordinates for numerous specific airfoils of these series at a coarse set of data points were published in a series of NACA reports. However, when performing parametric studies on effects of such variables as thickness, location of maximum thickness, leading- edge radius, location of maximum camber and others, it is not always easy to obtain the ordinates of the desired shapes rapidly and accurately. To remedy this problem the NASA Langley Research Center sponsored the development of computer programs for generation of ordinates of standard NACA airfoils.

Two separate programs were written by Charles Ladson and Cuyler Brooks of the NASA Langley Research Center in 1974-1975. The first was documented in NASA TM X-3284 and produces ordinates for NACA 4-digit, 4-digit modified, 5-digit, and 16-series airfoils. These thickness families are defined by algebraic equations. These thickness families are combined with appropriate mean lines to produce the final thick cambered airfoil.

The second program was documented in NASA TM X-3069 and produces ordinates for NACA 6-series and 6A-series airfoils. Unlike the other airfoils, these thickness distributions are not defined by algebraic equations, but use complex variable mapping of a circle into an airfoil shape. These thicknesses are combined with 6-series mean lines to produce the final thick cambered airfoil.

In December 1996, NASA published a new report outlining the theory behind the NACA airfoil sections and a revised computer program incorporating the features of both of the 1974-1975 programs. This report is designated TM-4741 and you can download a copy (PDF, 293KB) from the NASA document server. The program may be available from NASA.

PDAS home > Contents > NACA Airfoil > History
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)