Definition
A general label used in airfoil design discussions to refer to airfoil shapes developed after the earliest aviation era — typically airfoils with a more rounded leading edge, refined camber, and a thicker, more efficient cross-section than the thin, highly cambered shapes used on early aircraft. Later airfoils were designed to produce lift more efficiently across a wider range of speeds and angles of attack, and to behave more predictably near the stall.
Plain English
A newer-style wing cross-section. Compared to the thin, sharply curved wings of early aircraft, later wing shapes are thicker, smoother at the front, and shaped to fly better at a wider range of speeds.
Context Anchor
Seen in airfoil design discussions when comparing older wing shapes with improved designs used on later airplanes.
Derivation
Later means coming after something else in time. Airfoil combines air with foil, a word that came to mean a shaped surface that works in a moving fluid. Together, the phrase points to a wing shape developed after earlier airfoil designs.
Why Pilots Care
Knowing that wing shapes evolved helps explain why modern aircraft handle more predictably, stall more gently, and perform well across a wider speed range than early aircraft. The airfoil shape is a major reason your aircraft flies the way it does.
Intuition Check
Do not read “Later airfoil” as a formal airfoil name or model number. Here, “later” simply means a newer design compared with the earlier one in the figure.
Example Sentence 1
The textbook compared an early airfoil to a later airfoil to show how wing design improved lift and stall behavior.
Example Sentence 2
Figure 4-6 compares the early thin airfoil with the later airfoil that reduced drag across typical cruise angles.