Description: This collection of data on airfoils has been made from the published reports of a number of the leading aerodynamic laboratories of this country and Europe. The information which was originally expressed according to the different customs of the several laboratories is here presented in a uniform series of charts and tables suitable for the use of designing engineers and for purposes of general reference. The absolute system of coefficients has been used, since it is thought by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics that this is the one most suited for international use and yet is one for which a desired transformation can be easily made. The authority for the results here presented is given as the name of the laboratory at which the experiments were conducted, with the size of the model, wind velocity, and date of test.

Description: This report gives the description and the use of a specially designed aerodynamic plane table. For the accurate and expeditious geometrical measurement of models in an aerodynamic laboratory, and for miscellaneous truing operations, there is frequent need for a specially equipped plan table. For example, one may have to measure truly to 0.001 inch the offsets of an airfoil at many parts of its surface. Or the offsets of a strut, airship hull, or other carefully formed figure may require exact calipering. Again, a complete airplane model may have to be adjusted for correct incidence at all parts of its surfaces or verified in those parts for conformance to specifications. Such work, if but occasional, may be done on a planing or milling machine; but if frequent, justifies the provision of a special table. For this reason it was found desirable in 1918 to make the table described in this report and to equip it with such gauges and measures as the work should require.

Description: This report contains a description of a new and useful method suitable for the design of propellers and for the interpretation of tests with propellers. The fictitious slipstream velocity, computed from the absorbed horsepower, is plotted against the relative slip velocity. It is discussed in detail how this velocity is obtained, interpreted, and used. The methods are then illustrated by applying them to model tests and to free flight tests with actual propellers.

Description: This investigation was carried out by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field in order to study as closely as possible the behavior of an airplane when it was making a longitudinal oscillation. The airspeed, the altitude, the angle with the horizon and the angle of attack were all recorded simultaneously and the resulting curves plotted to the same time scale. The results show that all the curves are very close to damped sine curves, with the curves for height and angle of attack in phase, that for angle with the horizon leading them by 18 per cent and that for path angle leading them by 25 per cent.

Description: This investigation was carried out in the 5-foot wind tunnel of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for the purpose of obtaining more complete information on the distribution of lift between the ends of wing spars, the stresses in ailerons, and the general subject of airflow near the tip of a wing. It includes one series of tests on four models without ailerons, having square, elliptical, and raked tips respectively, and a second series of positively and negatively raked wings with ailerons adjusted to different settings. The results show that negatively raked tips give a more uniform distribution of air pressure than any of the other three arrangements, because the tip vortex does not disturb the flow at the trailing edge. Aileron loads are found to be less severe on wings with negative application to the calculation of aileron and wing stresses and also to facilitate the proper distribution of load in sand testing. Contour charts show in great detail the complex distribution lift over the wing.