Airfoil Wind Tunnel Data
I am currently involved in a university project to design and build model aircraft. We have been testing
NACA 4 digit profiles (5313, 7313, 9313, 8415) in a wind tunnel and have been looking for other test
results and/or theoretical solutions of the lift and drag coefficients with respect to angle of attack
for comparison purposes. Hoping you could point us towards a link or answer.
- question from Craig Cochrane
I would recommend that you pick up a copy of the classic book Theory of Wing Sections by Abbott and Von
Doenhoff, 1959. This is a very popular book summarizing the basics of all the
NACA airfoil series, and it should be easy to find in a technical library or
university book store.
The appendices include lift and drag plots for a number of 4-Digit airfoils, although I'm not sure if it contains
any of the airfoils you mentioned. The book also references many NACA reports that may contain additional data.
Most of these reports are available on the web at the NACA
Technical Reports Server.
Another option is to download Mark Drela's XFOIL code.
XFOIL is one of the most respected codes in existence for computationally predicting airfoil performance. All
the NACA 4- and 5-Digit airfoil coordinates are built into it, so analyzing them is relatively easy. The code is
a little difficult to learn at first, but it's well worth the time.
Additional information on airfoil design and analysis is available in previous questions on
airfoils.
- answer by Jeff Scott, 2 February 2003
Related Topics:
Read More Articles:
