Airfoil Optimizer

Airfoil Optimizer is a tool for selecting a near optimum airfoil for your aircraft design.  Thousands of airfoils have been developed since before the Wright brother's first sustained, powered flight in 1903 at Kill Devil Hills.  Buried in those thousands of airfoils are probably some that are quite well suited for your design application.  Unfortunately, aerodynamic performance data on existing airfoil designs is often difficult to obtain and too often airfoil selection can boil down to educated guesswork or just using the same airfoil used on another design whether it fits well or not.  Airfoil Optimizer attempts to solve this problem by bringing together a comprehensive and consistent aerodynamic performance database and a software tool for intelligently sorting through this database and matching the predicted airfoil performance against the flight requirements for your design.

Overview

Airfoil Optimizer assists you in selecting an appropriate airfoil for your aircraft design and includes 4 primary screens or worksheets.  The first is the Aircraft Properties screen which enables you to specify the parameters for your aircraft.  On this screen you can enter the aircraft's weight, wing area, and flight speeds.  This information is used by the software to help you select a well-matched airfoil profile. 

The second screen is the Airfoil Selector screen.  This screen includes a trade-off chart and a list of airfoils from which you may want to choose.  On this screen you can select the two most important features for the airfoil you want.  For example, you might be most interested in low minimum drag, low cruise drag, maximum lift, low moment, etc...  You can select two of these features or metrics that are most important to you and then the software will display a chart showing which of the airfoils in the database provide the best combinations of these two features.  In addition to showing the information graphically, the airfoils are ranked and listed next to the chart for easier selection.

The third screen is the Performance Comparison screen.  This screen enables you to estimate the changes in your aircraft's performance that would occur if you switched between any two airfoils in the database.  The changes in stall speed and cruise speed are shown as well as the changes in power required and rate of climb available at various flight speeds.

The final screen is an Airfoil Polar Viewer.  The polar viewer displays the detailed aerodynamic data on the various airfoils and can be used to page through the aerodynamic data quickly and compare the features of the various airfoils under consideration.

Airfoil Optimizer can be used for propeller-driven and jet aircraft as well as un-powered gliders and sailplanes.  The airfoil database contains 330 different airfoil section that were chosen based on their performance and popularity.

Airfoil Optimizer is a great companion for AirplanePDQ.  Airfoil geometries and polars can be exported for use with AirplanePDQ.

User Comments

Thanks for the new beta download - the load went without a hitch and works PERFECTLY - just wish I had this when I designed my Reno Gold Winning biplane "Rags" and modified my Reno Unlimited "The Machbuster".  I now have identified airfoils which if built will increase the top speeds of both. Additionally we will be using it to select the foils for a small jet we are preparing for our own travel usage. I can only say that the way you have put this program together is not only saving us much time but is allowing us to easily refine the airfoil selection for BEST performance. Thank you.

David Rose, President
Rose Motor Sports, Home of "Rags" and "The Machbuster"

Price

Airfoil Optimizer is available for $69 through our online store.  All of our software comes with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.  If the software does not meet your expectations during the first 30 days, you can return the disk for a full refund of your license fee (shipping costs are not refundable).

Software Requirements

The software requires Windows 95/98/NT 4.0/2000/Me/XP, and requires approximately 20 MB of disk space including approximately 10 MB of space on the system drive.  32-64 MB of RAM is recommended.