Review of NASA supercritical airfoils

NASA supercritical airfoils are characterized by a substantially reduced curvature of the midcord region of the upper surface together with increased camber near the trailing edge. The basic aerodynamic phenomena associated with the airfoils and representative wind tunnel results are discussed. The results indicate that the drag rise Mach numbers for NASA supercritical airfoils are 0.1 higher than for comparable NACA 6-series airfoils. A recent analytic method for predicting the aerodynamic characteristics of supercritical airfoils is described. The flight demonstration programs of three applications of supercritical airfoils utilizing the F-8, T-2C and F-111 as test beds are summarized.