Now that looks about like what I thought it would... but the questions
occurred to me... What is the "official" method of creating accurate
plots from the data? How was the coordinate system designed in order to
be able to accurately recreate the shapes? How did they calculate this
stuff before the advent of computers and CAD programs? I know they had
an arsenal of 'french curves' but there seems like there would be a lot
of "eyeball judgement" in that approach.

There are several de facto file format standards for transferring
airfoil co-ordinates between programs and many of them use 100 points
along the chord with the co-ordinates starting at the TE for the opt
surface, continuing round the LE and back to the TE. A list like this,
sucked into autocad and then joined using a cubic spline starting and
ending at the TE should give a reasonable result if you use, say, 10
line segments per point. The critical points a

- use enough co-ordinate points
- use at least 10 line segments per point
- make sure you're using a CUBIC spline, not a circular spline

You didn't say what format you're using to download the co-ordinates.
If it doesn't suit this method and/or hasn't enough points to give a
really accurate wing section you can use Martin Hepperle's ConCord
program to convert the co-ordinates into a more suitable form. His web
site is: http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/index.htm.

Click 'Software' on the index and scroll down to ConCord for a free
download.

HTH
Martin

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :