A new mutation operator, ℳ ijn , capable of operating on a set of adjacent bits in one single step, is introduced. Its features are examined and compared against those of the classical bit–flip mutation. A simple Evolutionary Algorithm, ℳ–EA, based only on selection and ℳ ijn , is described. This algorithm is used for the solution of an industrial problem, the Inverse Airfoil Design optimization, characterized by high search time to achieve satisfying solutions, and its performance is compared against that offered by a classical binary Genetic Algorithm. The experiments show for our algorithm a noticeable reduction in the time needed to reach a solution of acceptable quality, thus they prove the effectiveness of the proposed operator and its superiority to GAs for the problem at hand.