Before the age of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), engineers at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the predecessor to NASA) developed a systematic way to describe airfoil shapes using a simple mathematical equation. The "four-digit series" is the most famous of these families.
Because the airfoil has a camber of 2%, it produces positive lift even at a zero-degree angle of attack. This means the aircraft naturally wants to climb or fly level without the pilot pulling back on the stick. It contributes to positive longitudinal stability, meaning the plane wants to return to its trimmed speed. naca2412
It is also the default "training wheel" for aerospace engineering students. Every aerospace major has run a NACA 2412 through a wind tunnel simulation (like XFoil or ANSYS) to watch the pressure distribution change as angle of attack increases. Before the age of computational fluid dynamics (CFD),