Airfoil Data
USA27

The USA 27 AIRFOIL is a 10.6% chord-thickness airfoil with a maximum camber of 5.3% at 30% 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 -5.3°.

Thin airfoil theory predicts a stall angle near 11.7° and a peak lift-to-drag ratio around 65 at typical UAV and light-aircraft Reynolds numbers — useful benchmarks before running a full XFOIL or NeuralFoil polar. The 11% thickness provides structural depth for main-spar placement without excessive drag penalty at moderate speeds.

The USA27 appears in the wing design of at least 31 documented aircraft, including designs from Ford and Swallow. 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 USA27 typically compare it against profiles of similar thickness: GOE 775 AIRFOIL, FX 61-147 AIRFOIL, NACA 23018, NACA 5-H-15 AIRFOIL, EPPLER 342 AIRFOIL. The NASA SC(2)-0714 AIRFOIL is another reference profile frequently considered alongside it.