A theoretical method, which requires the use of a digital computer, was developed to predict pressure distributions on an airfoil in an inviscid two-dimensional nonuniformly sheared flow. The theory is applicable to airfoils of arbitrary profile and to nonuniformly sheared flows which can be represented by segments with linear velocity profiles. To test the developed theory, aerodynamic characteristics of an airfoil were investigated both theoretically and experimentally in a relatively simple two-dimensional nonuniformly sheared flow consisting of two segments with shears of equal magnitude but of opposite sign. Agreement between computed and experimental pressure distributions was good and on the basis of these results, a mechanism is postulated by which the large variations in lift previously observed in a two-dimensional nonuniformly sheared flow can occur.