A curved surface, like an airplane wing, designed to create lift or control air movement for flight.
Compound of 'air' and 'foil' (from Old French 'foil,' meaning a thin sheet). The term was coined in aeronautics to describe shapes that manipulate air.
The same airfoil shape that lifts a Boeing 747 also lets hummingbirds hover by flapping their wings backward—nature perfected aerodynamics millions of years before the Wright brothers.
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