Airfoil shapes are commonly used for the fins on sailboats that are often described as creating lift & as having an angle of attack which counteracts leeway caused by wind on the beam hitting the sails. Those fins will often have somewhat rounded off leading edges for similar reasons that wings...
Thanks for replying. I thought that generally the envelope of inherent stability is increased by a more rounded leading edge, the wing is more tolerant of a wider range of angle of attack & it's stall behaviour is more benign. The BAC 111 crash was caused by an abrupt stall where the recovery...
Wing leading edges generally require a lack of sharpness for increased stability. A BAC 111 jet prototype crashed due to leading edge excess sharpness caused problems. There have been sailboats with rounded off stems which provided advantages according to the designers.