Airfoil Data
NACA653218

The NACA 65(3)-218 is a 10.1% chord-thickness airfoil with a maximum camber of 5.0% at 40% chord, suited to general-aviation and UAV wing design. At zero angle of attack the cambered geometry generates positive lift, giving an estimated zero-lift angle of -5.0°.

Thin airfoil theory predicts a stall angle near 11.7° and a peak lift-to-drag ratio around 64 at typical UAV and light-aircraft Reynolds numbers — useful benchmarks before running a full XFOIL or NeuralFoil polar. The 10% thickness provides structural depth for main-spar placement without excessive drag penalty at moderate speeds.

Designers evaluating the NACA653218 typically compare it against profiles of similar thickness: ARA-D 13% AIRFOIL, MRC-16, GOE 550 AIRFOIL, FX 84-W-127, Smoothed ATR airfoil coordinates obtained using AFSMO (Harry Morgan's NASA smoothing program). The NACA M2 AIRFOIL is another reference profile frequently considered alongside it.