Airfoil Data
USA5

The USA 5 AIRFOIL is a thin 7.7% chord-thickness airfoil with a maximum camber of 3.9% at 30% chord, suited to high-speed UAVs, sailplane tip sections, and propeller blade design. At zero angle of attack the cambered geometry generates positive lift, giving an estimated zero-lift angle of -3.9°.

Thin airfoil theory predicts a stall angle near 11.8° and a peak lift-to-drag ratio around 57 at typical UAV and light-aircraft Reynolds numbers — useful benchmarks before running a full XFOIL or NeuralFoil polar. The slim profile minimises pressure drag at higher speeds but leaves limited spar depth for structural integration.

The USA5 appears in the wing design of at least 2 documented aircraft, including designs from Sundstedt-Hannevig and Witteman-Lewis. Its proven track record across canard designs makes it one of the more field-validated profiles in the UIUC database.

Designers evaluating the USA5 typically compare it against profiles of similar thickness: GOE 451 AIRFOIL, ONERA HOR07 AIRFOIL, GOE 122 (MVA H.2) AIRFOIL, E212 (10.55%), GOE 400 AIRFOIL. The D.G.A. 1182 is another reference profile frequently considered alongside it.