"This lecture series is devoted to major aspects of aerofoil design both for aeronautical and turbomachine application. These include: (1) optimisation of target pressure and velocity distribution. Both direct optimisation resulting from an inverse boundary layer calculation and an iterative optimisation of the loses are presented. (2) aerofoil design by means of inverse methods. This ranges from simple parametric definitions of two- dimensional cross sections to a detailed numerical definition of three dimensional shapes. blade or airfoil designs are normally made in two steps, and the lectures are accordingly grouped into two parts. First, optimisation of target pressure and velocity distributions are discussed taking into account the required performance and the lost mechanisms in the boundary layer. Both direct optimisation resulting from an inverse boundary layer calculation, and an iterative optimisation by minimisation of the losses are presented. It is clear from both procedures that inclusion of off-design operation is one of the greatest difficulties involved in blade or airfoil operation. The second part gives an overview of the numerous inverse blade design methods that have been developed both for turbomachinery and aeronautical applications. This ranges from simple parameter definitions of two-dimensional cross-sections to the full three-dimensional definition of wings and blade channels."--DTIC.