In this paper, we experimentally investigated the effects of attached cylindrical tripwires on the aerodynamic performance. The research was carried out with a simple two-dimensional (2-D) rectangular airfoil fabricated from thin flat-plate aluminium, with elliptical leading and trailing edges. Tripwires of varying widths and thicknesses, and attack angles of $-5^{circ}{sim}20^{circ}$ were used to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics (e.g. lift and drag forces) of the airfoil. We found that attaching the tripwires to the lower surface of the airfoil enhanced the lift force and increased the lift-to-drag ratio for low attack angles. However, attaching the tripwires to the upper surface tended to have the opposite effects. Moreover, we found that attaching the tripwires to the trailing edge had similar effects as a Gurney flap. The aerodynamic characteristics of the flat-plate airfoil with tripwires can be used to develop passive control devices for aircraft wings in order to increase their aerodynamic performance when gliding at low attack angles.