Definition of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_(aircraft)" class="extiw" title="en:Chord (aircraft)">chord length</a> on an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil" class="extiw" title="en:Airfoil">airfoil</a>.
<p>The chord spans from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_edge" class="extiw" title="en:Leading edge">leading edge</a> (surface point of minimum radius<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup>) to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trailing_edge" class="extiw" title="w:trailing edge">trailing edge</a>. The chord length is the length of that segment (rather than that of the airfoil itself).
</p><p>The airfoil represented here displays very high relative thickness and camber; it is used in turbine blades that operate at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_attack" class="extiw" title="en:Angle of attack">angles of attack</a> exceeding 90°.
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<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:222px;"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg" class="image"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg/220px-Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="194" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg/330px-Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg/440px-Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="672" data-file-height="593"></a>  <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Different definitions for the thickness</div></div></div>
<p>Note that the <b>thickness</b> can be defined in several ways (see <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airfoil_thickness_definition.svg" title="File:Airfoil thickness definition.svg">File:Airfoil thickness definition.svg</a>). The so-called "American convention" is used here.
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<div style="-moz-column-count:1; -webkit-column-count:1; column-count:1;"><ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="book" style="font-style:normal">Houghton, E. L.; Carpenter, P.W. (2003)   Butterworth Heinmann , ed.   <i> Aerodynamics for Engineering Students</i> (5<sup>th</sup> ed.)  <small><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" class="extiw" title="en:International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a>:  <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7506-5111-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-7506-5111-3">0-7506-5111-3</a>. </small></cite> p.18</span>
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<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scalvo98" title="User:Scalvo98">Scalvo98</a>, based on <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ariadacapo" title="User:Ariadacapo">Olivier Cleynen</a> work and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nubifer" title="User:Nubifer">Nubifer</a> translations
2018-12-24
This <i>W3C-unspecified</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_images" class="extiw" title="w:Vector images">vector image</a> was created with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkscape" class="extiw" title="w:Inkscape">Inkscape</a> .