An apparatus for automated non-destructive inspection (NDI) of the leading edge surface and other surfaces of an airfoil-shaped body, such as a wind turbine blade, a helicopter rotor blade and an aircraft wing. The apparatus takes the form of a crawler vehicle having a multiplicity of omnidirectional wheels rotatably coupled to a flexible base that includes a flexible substrate made of semi-rigid material. The flexible base incorporates (or has attached thereto) vacuum adherence devices that keep the wheels frictionally engaged on the surface regardless of surface contour. Thus the crawler vehicle is capable of adhering to and moving over a non-level surface while enabling an NDI sensor unit (one sensor or an array of sensors) mounted thereon to acquire NDI scan data from the surface under inspection.