Airfoil Data
E603

The EPPLER 603 AIRFOIL is a 12.8% chord-thickness airfoil with a maximum camber of 6.4% at 40% chord, suited to high-lift UAV wings, RC sailplanes, and low-Reynolds-number slow-flyers. At zero angle of attack the cambered geometry generates positive lift, giving an estimated zero-lift angle of -6.4°.

Thin airfoil theory predicts a stall angle near 11.3° and a peak lift-to-drag ratio around 70 at typical UAV and light-aircraft Reynolds numbers — useful benchmarks before running a full XFOIL or NeuralFoil polar. The 13% thickness provides structural depth for main-spar placement without excessive drag penalty at moderate speeds.

The E603 appears in the wing design of at least 15 documented aircraft, including designs from Grob and Akaflieg. Its proven track record across conventional and rotorcraft designs makes it one of the more field-validated profiles in the UIUC database.

Designers evaluating the E603 typically compare it against profiles of similar thickness: GOE 498 AIRFOIL, GOE 13K AIRFOIL, GOE 387 AIRFOIL, FX 73-170, NACA 4418. The NLR-7301 AIRFOIL is another reference profile frequently considered alongside it.