Airfoils Incorporated

Only The Best Is Good Enough

Applications

Dan Somers has designed over 30 airfoils for applications ranging from 2-meter-diameter wind turbines to business jets, from cooling-tower fans to cruise missiles. The table below lists each airfoil, its application class, and — where not proprietary — an example product or program.

Zond wind turbine employing Somers airfoils Lancair airplane employing Somers airfoils
Airfoil Application Example
S101 and S102 General aviation aircraft Proprietary
S201 Cruise missile Proprietary
S202 Tilt-wing aircraft Proprietary
S203 Business jet Proprietary
S401 and S402 Gyroplane Groen Brothers Aviation Hawk 4
S601 and S602 Unmanned aerial vehicle Proprietary
SM701 Sailplane Cygnet
S801–S804 10- to 20-meter-diameter, variable-speed/variable-pitch, horizontal-axis wind turbine National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
S805–S808 10- to 20-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine Phoenix Industries 7.9-meter blade
S809–S811 20- to 30-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine Advanced Wind Turbines AWT-26
S812–S815 20- to 30-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine Atlantic Orient Corp. AOC 15/50
S816–S818 30- to 50-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine Zond Energy Systems Z-50
S819–S821 10- to 20-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine TPI Composites 9-meter blade
S822 and S823 2- to 10-meter-diameter, variable-speed/variable-pitch, horizontal-axis wind turbine National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
S824 Vertical-axis wind turbine FloWind 21-EHD
S825 and S826 20- to 40-meter-diameter, variable-speed/variable-pitch, horizontal-axis wind turbine National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
S827 and S828 40- to 50-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
S829 20- to 40-meter-diameter, stall-regulated, horizontal-axis wind turbine National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
S901–S903 Wind-turbine blade roughness study Not applicable
S904 and S905 Cooling-tower fan National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
NASA NLF(1)-0115 General aviation aircraft
NASA NLF(1)-0215F General aviation aircraft Neico Aviation Lancair 360
NASA NLF(1)-0315 General aviation aircraft Mooney 301
NASA NLF(1)-0416 General aviation aircraft Swearingen SX-300
NASA NLF(1)-1015 Unmanned aerial vehicle
NASA/DLR NLF(2)-0415 Commuter aircraft

Related

For details on the design process, see Subsonic Airfoil Design. To see who uses these airfoils, see Clients. For the full catalog of technical reports, see Publications.