Aerospace Engineer Biographies

7/27/2019 Aerospace Engineer Biographies

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In the Cause of FlightT E C H N O L O G I S T S

OF AE R ONAUT IC S AND AST R ONA UT IC S

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_ _HOWARD S. W OLK O

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S M I T H S O N I A N S T U D I E S I N A I R A N D S P A C E N U M B E R 4


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SERIES PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONEmphasis upon publicat ion as a means of "dif fusing knowledge" was expressedby the f irst Secretary of the S mithsonian . In his formal plan for the Inst itu t ion, JosephHenry out l ined a program that included the fol lowing statement: " I t is proposed topublish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, andof the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." This themeof basic research has been adhered to through the years by thousands of t it les issued

in ser ies publicat ions under the Smithsonian imprint , commencing with SmithsonianContributions to Knowledge in 1848 and cont inuing with the fol lowing act ive ser ies:Smithsonian Contributions to AnthropologySmithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics

Smithsonian C ontributions to BotanySmithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences

Smithsonian Contributions to PaleobiologySmithsonian Contributions to ZoologySmithsonian Studies in Air and Space

Smithsonian Studies in History and TechnologyIn these ser ies, the Inst itut ion publishes small papers and full-scale monographsthat report the research and collections of its various museums and bureaux or of

professional colleagues in the world cf science and scholarship. The publications aredistr ibuted by mail ing l ists to l ibrar ies, universit ies, and similar inst itut ions throughoutthe wor ld.Papers or monographs submitted for series publication are received by theSmithsonian Inst itut ion Press, subject to its own review for format and style, onlythrough departments of the var ious Smithsonian museums or bureaux, where themanuscripts are given substant ive review. Press requirements for manuscr ipt and artpreparation are outlined on the inside back cover.S. Dillon RipleySecretarySmithsonian Inst itut ion


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In the Cause o f F l igh tT E C H N O L O G I S T S O F A E R O N A U T I C S

A N D A S T R O N A U T I C S

Howard S. Wolko

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESSCity of Washington

1981


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A B S T R A C TWo lko , Ho wa rd S . In the Cau se of F l igh t : Technologi s t s o f Aeron aut i cs an dAs t ronaut i cs . Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space, number 4 , 121 pages , 1981.Many of the ind iv idua l s who made prominent cont r ibu t ions to the t echnologyof f l ight have at t racted l i t t le his tor ical at tent ion; yet their accomplishmentsserved to s t imulate progress in aerospace development . This work representsan effort to foster interest in flight technologists and their contributions tovehicle per formance . In fo rmat ion sca t t e red th rou gho ut the l i t e ra ture is as sembled herein to provide s tudents of f l ight his tory with a convenient source ofbiog raph ical m ater ia l on 129 technologis ts . T he biog raph ical sketches arearra nge d in chronolog ical order of con tr ibu t ion fol lowing each topical discuss ion . The top ics inc lude bouyant f l igh t ; aerodynamics ; a i r -brea th ing propul s ion; mater ials , s t ructures , and des ign; ver t ical f l ight ; and rocketry and spaceflight.

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is han ds t a m p ed in a l im i t ed nu m b er o f i n it i a l copi e s and is r eco rdedin t he Ins t i t u t i on ' s annua l r epor t , Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: Spiral galaxy in thecons t e l l a t i on T r i agu lum .L ib ra ry o f C ongres s C a t a log ing i n P ub l i ca t i on D a taW o l k o , H o w a r d S .In the cause of fl ight.(Sm ithson ian s tudies in a i r and space ; no. 4)B ib l i og raphy : p .Inc ludes i ndex .1. A eron au t i c s B iograp hy . 2 . R ock e t ry B iograp hy . I . T i t l e . I I . S e r ie s .T L 539 . W 67 629 . 13 ' 0092 ' 2 [B ] 80-19749


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C o n t e n t sPage

I n t r o d u c t i o n 1Engineer s and Aeronaut i cs 6A ck n o w l ed g men t s 8Buoy ant F l igh t 8Bal loons 9Airships 10

Biog raphic Sketches 12Aerodynamics 16Th e Form at ive Year s , 1687-1915 16Th e Years of Progressive Ref in em ent , 1915-1935 18T he Years of Sonic Ach ievem ent , 193 5- 23Biogra phic Sketches 25Ai r -Brea th ing Propul s ion 50Predece ssors of the Aircraft En gin e 50Steam Engines 50

Autom obi le Engines 51Th e Aircraft Eng ine 52Exhau s t V a lves 54Supercharger s 55Ca rbu reto rs an d Fuel- Inject ion Systems 55V ar iab le P i t ch Propell e r s 57Turbo je t Engines 58Biograp hic Sketches 61Fl ight Struc tures 69M ater ia ls , Structu res , an d Design 70Biograp hic Sketches 76V er t ical Fl ight _ 93Autogiros 94Hel icopters 94

Biogra phic Sketches 95Rocket ry and Space F l igh t 98Th e Form at ive Year s 98Th e Trans i t ion to Space 102Biog raphic Sketches 105Li te ra tu re C i ted 117Na me Index 119

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In the Cause o f F l igh tHoward S. Wolko

In t roduc t ionMan's aspirat ion to f ly can be t raced to ant iqui ty through ear ly wri t ings , conceptual sketches ,

and surv iv ing accounts o f tower jum pers ; b u tsuch evidence merely serves to document thepers is tent dream of f l ight in a mechanical ly unenl ightened era. Li t t le to advance the cause ofpract ical f l ight was accomplished by these act ivi t ies . True f l ight , wi th power and control , provedto be an endeaver to ta l ly dependent on the emer gence of engineer ing as a major creat ive forcean event that did not occur unt i l the lat ter halfof the 19th century. For this reason, i t i s appropr iate to t race br ief ly the or igins of contemporaryengineer ing and the factors that inf luenced i tsgrowth in the years pr ior to f l ight demonstrat ion.

Society has always been inf luenced by a technological age of sor ts , but technology as pract icedprior to the scientific revolution of the 17th century dif fered markedly in phi losophy and subs tance f rom that which was to fol low. The 17thcentury , more than any preceding i t , was a t imein which l earned men ques t ioned the es tab l i sheddoct r ines of r eason and , f ind ing them inad equ ate ,began to search for more real is t ic means of descr ib ing observed phenomena. I t was a t ime inwhich scient i f ic cur ios i ty rather than appl icat ionwas the preva i l ing mot ive power , bu t the causeat work was r ight for formulat ion of the prerequ i s i t es r equi red for engineer ing accompl i shment .Dur ing th i s per iod a number of g rea t th inker sHoward S. Wolko, Aeronautics Department, National Air and SpaceMuse um, Smithsonian Institution, Washin gton, D. C. 20 560.

uni ted to form academies of science, which provided an intel lectural atmosphere and fos teredexchan ge of in format ion . Th ese academ ies servedto focus effort on transforming vague and oftenintractable concepts into ideal ized theor ies access ib le to m athem at ica l t r ea tm ent . Ac adem ic iansof the cal iber of Blaise Pascal , Rober t Hooke,Gott f r ied von Leibni tz , and Issac Newton, tom ent io n jus t a few, com posed theo r ies tha t we reins t rumenta l in shaping the pa t t e rns of r easonan d u n d e r s t an d i n g o f p h y s ica l p h en o m en a t h a twould guide future generat ions to superb technica l ach ievements .

With few except ions , engineers of the per iodwere not involved with the mains tream of scient i f ic act ivi ty. At the t ime, engineers were t rainedthrough apprent iceship to be ski l led ar t isans engaged in mil i tary ventures related to roads , fort i f icat ions , an d m achin es of war . Most h ad nocol lege t rainin g an d l i t t le expo sure to the sciences.Thei r s was an appl i ca t ion-or ien ted occupat ionbased pr inc ipa l ly on emp i r i ca l ru les -of - thumb developed f rom pract ical work exper ience and f requent ly w i thout sound phys ica l o r mathemat ica ljus t i f icat ion. Engineer ing schools were nonexis t ent and f ield exper ience was of ten gained f romprolonged ass ignments in the colonies .

France was the f i rs t to recognize the need toprovide engineers with sys temat ic t raining. As amajor l and power engaged in consol ida t ion anddefense of i ts colonial holdings , the French governm ent founded the Corps des Ingenieur s d u


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Genie Mil i tai re (Corps of Mil i tary Engineers) in1675 to provide th e arm y with special ists in b ui lding fortif ications. This was followed in 1720 withthe Corps des Ingenieurs des Ponts et Chaussees(Corps of Engineers for Roads and Bridges) (Rae,1967:328) . Five years later these organizat ionswere consol idated to form a Corps du Genie(Corps of Engineers) , which required i ts membersto have an e lementary knowledge of mathemat ics, draf t ing, an d th e pr inciples of for ti f icat ion. In1747, the first professional engineering college tooffer civil as well as military engineering, theEcole des Ponts et Chaussees was founded as anoffshoot of this corps. Two years later, a seconden gin eer ing school" at Me zieres was founded totrain engineers for fortif ication work (Rae, 1967:329) .

While these schools represent a major s teptoward sys temat ic t raining of engineers , their mil i tary t ies cont inued the French pract ice of t raining engineers pr incipal ly for government service.In addi t ion , the t each ing methods employed re tained an ai r of apprent ice t raining s ince engineers with f ield exper ience were used to explainto individual s tudents how a given type of s t ructure should be des igned and cons t ruc ted . Nei thergroup lectures nor t raining in the physical sci ences or mathemat ics , beyond geomet ry , wereincluded in the course of ins t ruct ion (Gilmor ,1971:9).

Th rou gh ou t mu ch of the 18 th cen tury , F rancewas in a s tate of mil i tary and pol i t ical unres t thatf inal ly erupted into the French Revolut ion of1787. Star t ing with format ion of L 'AssembleeNat ionale (Nat ional Assembly) , the pr ivi leges ofnobi l i ty were progress ively el iminated as manyins t i tut ions of the ancien regime were abol ished orreorganized. Pr imar i ly of noble l ineage, the s tudents and professors at the engineer ing schoolssoon were regarded with suspicion and, in t ime,the schools were closed. But France was at warwith the European coal i t ion and desperately inneed of engineers to build fortif ications, roads,and br idges .

In 1794, a d is t ingui shed m athe m at ic ia n , Gas -pard Monge per suaded the new government to

organize a type of engineer ing school to replaceall those of the ancien regime. Known as the EcolePoly tec hniqu e , the school was r emark ably d if fe rent f rom any of i ts predecessors (Timoschenko,1953:67) . Monge, who was given responsibi l i tyfor organizing the school , was a fundamental is twho bel ieved that s tudents wel l versed in thesc iences of mechanics , mathemat ics , phys ics , andchemis t ry would have l i t t l e t rouble acqui r ing thespec ial i zed know ledge r equi red of engineer ing app l i ca t ion . Accord ingly , he organized a th ree-yearprogram of s tudy: the f i rs t two years were devotedent i rely to the fundamental sciences , and engineer ing courses were reserved for the thi rd year .Later , when the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees andthe o ther s chool s were r eopened wi th improvedcur r i cu la , the Ecole Poly technique became a two-year s chool concent ra t ing on ly on the fundamental sciences . Students interes ted in complet ingthe i r engineer ing prepara t ion could do so a t oneof the schools offer ing t raining in engineer ingappl ica t ions (T imoschenko, 1953:68) .

To imp leme nt h i s edu ca t ion a l ph i losophies ,Monge in t roduced the l ec ture sys tem of t each ingand recru i t ed an ou t s t anding f acu l ty , which in cluded, among others , such dis t inguished scient is ts as La gra nge , Four ier , and Poisson. Admiss ionto the Ecole Polytechnique was open to al l cand ida tes bu t cont ro l l ed by compet i t ive examinat ion. The pres t ige associated with select ion servedto at t ract the most talented s tudents in Par is , whosought exposure to the grea tes t mathemat ic iansand scient is ts of the t ime.

During the 18th century, the scient i f ic resul tsof the preceding hundred years were closely scrut i n i zed b y co n t i n en t a l ma t h ema t i c i an s w h osought to clarify concepts left lacking in sharpdef ini t ion by Leibni tz and Newton. As the complementary discipl ines of the calculus and mechanics were ref ined and uni ted to provide arat ional means for inves t igat ing physical problems, scient i f ic methods were gradual ly broughtin to c loser harmony wi th engineer ing needs . Thesuccess of the Ecole Polytechnique and the superbqual i ty of i t s graduates was a pivotal factor inra i s ing the s t andard s of engineer ing ed uca t io n on


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an in te rna t io na l l eve l. W i th the no tab le except ionof Great Br i tain, al l the pr incipal countr ies ofEurope modeled the i r methods of engineer ingeducat ion af ter those ini t iated in France (Timoschenko, 1953:70) .In Germany, the government sought to promo te indus t ry and r eb ui ld i ts econom ic s t ruc turefol lowing the Napoleonic wars by founding several eng inee r ing schools . Th ese schools were giventhe s tatus of univers i t ies and held responsible foreduca t ing engineer s to academic s t andards comparable with those of the recognized profess ions .While bas ical ly pat terned along the l ines of theEcole Poly technique , German schools in t roducedsome interes t ing var iat ions that resul ted in subs tan t ial di f ferences in or ie ntat io n, orga nizat io nal

s t r u c t u r e , an d ad mi n i s t r a t i o n . O r g an i zed a r o u n dfour year curricula designed to cover the fullcourse of s tudy, these schools concentrated onprepar ing engineers to meet the needs of industryra ther than those of the mi l i t a ry . The Frenchpract ice of devot ing the f i rs t two years of ins t ruct ion to the fundamental sciences was retained,bu t s tudent s could comple te the i r t r a in ing inengineer ing without t ransferr ing to a satel l i teschool . This permit ted the schools to retain cont inui ty and provided for bet ter regulat ion of theba lance be tween theory and appl i ca t ion r equi redof sound engineer ing prepa ra t ion . Adm ini s t r a t ively, the new schools were conducted in accordance with the pr inciples of academic f reedomins tead of the mi l i t a ry r eg imen com mo n to the i rFrench counterpar t s . Among o ther th ings , thecanons of academic f r eedom permi t t ed the s tuden ts to elect some of their courses (Tim osche nko ,1953:130) .

Upon comple t ion of the i r educa t ion , Germanengineers entered the ranks of industry. Here theywere confronted with the pract ical considerat ionsof engineer ing , which inc luded the ana lysi s an dsizing of machine par ts . I t was soon discoveredtha t the abs t r ac t ma them at ica l t r ea tm ent o f mechanics popular ized by the superb facul ty of theEcole Polytechnique was i l l -sui ted for use on suchproblems . To cor rec t the s i tua t ion , the Germancom mu ni ty of engineer s mo unte d an e ffort to

develop mechanics for engineer ing appl i ca t ions .This ef for t led to the int roduct ion of a number ofbooks emphas iz ing methodology and what became k n o w n a s " en g i n ee r i n g mech an i c s . " W o r k ssuch as Ju l ius We isbach ' s Mechanics of Machineryand Engineering, which was h igh ly r egarded inEurope and Amer ica ( an Engl i sh t r ans la t ion waspub l ished in 1848), typify the Ge rm an effor t toemph as ize the u t i l ity of engineer ing m echanics inprac t i ca l s i tua t ions . In t roduct ion of the Germanapproach to mechanics permi t t ed ana lys i s to bepresen ted in a way tha t could be under s tood bythose unaccus tomed to the concept s o f h ighermathemat ics , a f ac tor which proved to be ofimmeasurab le va lue in the development of self-educated engineer s (T imoschenko, 1953:131) .

As ment ioned previous ly, engineer ing schoolspa t t e rned af t e r the Ecole Poly technique were es t ab l i shed in mos t European count r i es dur ing thef irst qua r ter of the 19th cen tury. Grea t B r i tain,whose ear l ier success with industr ial izat ion resul ted in the so-cal led Industr ial Revolut ion, wasthe ou t s t anding except ion to th i s t r end . Br i t a in ,with i ts es tabl ished reputat ion as the world 's mostadvanced industr ial society, had l i t t le reason toques t ion i t s t r ad i t iona l p rac t i ce of p repar ing eng ineer s th rough appren t i ce t r a in ing , s ince t echnology was s t i l l largely a mat ter of innovat ionder ived f rom exper ience and intui t ive reasoning.Men fami l i a r w i th indus t r i a l equipment and processes through such t raining were uniquelyequipped to func t ion in the preva i l ing t echnica lenvi ronment w i thout r esor t to mathemat ica lanalys is or scient i f ic t raining (Rae, 1967:329) .Ear ly in the 19th century, a number of Br i t ish"mechanics ins t i tu tes " were opened , bu t theseschools were not comparable with the profess ionalschool s be ing developed on the cont inen t . The"mec hanics ins t i tu tes " were l i tt l e mo re than t r ad e

schools offering after hours courses for those int e res ted in supplement ing the i r appren t i ce t r a ining. Established British universities did not offerengineer ing unt i l the 1840's and, even then, i twas not regarded as an accepted academic disci pl ine (Rae, 1967:329) .A l though Grea t Br i t i an was s low to apprec ia te


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the engineer ing advantages of sys temat ic t r a in ingin sc ience and mathemat ics , i t s communi ty ofengineers was more conscious of their need forprofess ional recogni t ion than their cont inentalcounterpar t s . I t appear s tha t Br i t i sh engineer swere the f irst to recognize the prom ise of technicalaff i l iat ion and to organize voluntary societ ies topromote their profess ional ident i ty. The Ins t i tuteof Civi l Engineers , wi th Thomas Telford as i tsf i rs t pres ident , began to meet on a regular bas isin 1820. Telford, a prove n app rent ic e- t rain edengineer of Scot t ish l ineage, s t ressed the import ance of vo lunta ry par t i c ipa t ion a nd in i t i a t ed thepract ice of recording the subs tance of paperspresented at the Society 's weekly meet ings . Chartered in response to a pet i t ion submit ted to theat torn ey-g ene ral in 1828, this society bec am e thef i rs t of i t s type to acquire the s tatus and permanence of a fully recognized professional engineering society. Membership to the society was highlyselective and kept so by requ ir ing prospect ivemembers to present wri t ten evidence of both theirpract ical and theoret ical qual i f icat ions (Army-tage , 1961:123).

As technological complexi ty increased and began to assume the dimensions of a creat ive force,a number of engineers l imited their act ivi t ies topar t i cu lar concerns and formed addi t iona l t echnical societ ies to pro m ote profess ional recogni t ionof their engineer ing special t ies . This f i rs t beganin Great Br i tain through the effor ts of GeorgeStephenson , an eminent r a i lway engineer , whowas denied admiss ion to membersh ip in the Ins t i tute of Civi l Engineers because he fai led tosubmit evidence of his engineer ing qual i f icat ions .Stephenson and his fol lowers considered this requirement a professional affront and resolved toes tabl ish an independent society to represent theirspecial ized interes ts . The Ins t i tute of MechanicalEngineers , wi th George Stephenson as pres ident ,was founded in 1847 to promote improvement inthe mechanical sciences . Format ion of this societyes tabl ished the precedent for extending profess ional recogni t ion to engineers engaged in a special ized bran ch of engine er ing. Ot he r technica lsociet ies were organized in Great Br i tain dur ing

the lat ter half of the century as technology cont inued to develop a long l ines which emphas izedthe need for increased special izat ion in engineering (Armytage, 1961:131) .A l though the na t iona l s i tua t ion in Amer icawas far di f ferent f rom that in Europe, the ear ly19th century proved to be a crucial t ime for thedevelop men t of enginee r ing on bo th cont inen t s .In i ts broad out l ines , the bas ic s t ructur ing ofAmer ican engineer ing conformed to the emerg ingpat t e rn in Europe , bu t the manner in which i twas implemented combined the in f luence ofFrench , Germ an, a nd B r i ti sh experiences in a wayuniquely f i t t ed to meet immedia te Amer icanneeds . The resul t was an interes t ing var iant whichcon tain ed elem ents from each of the major E ur o p ean ap p r o ach e s t o en g i n ee r i n g p r ep a r a t i o n .

As a new na t ion engaged in expanding i t sf ront iers beyond the Alleghenies , the Uni tedStates began the 19th century with l i t t le industryand a cr i t ical shor tage of capi tal , labor , andt ra ined engineer s . There were f ew major populat ion centers , no engineer ing schools , and insuff i cient industr ial shops to fos ter an apprent iceshipsys tem comparable to tha t in Grea t Br i t a in . Under these condi t ions , men were measured , no t bythe i r ances t ry , b reed ing , o r educa t ion , bu t bytheir abi l i ty to get things done with l imited manpower and funds . Such men, charac ter i zed in the19th century as sel f - taught "Jacks-o f-al l - t rades ,"were a t a p remium. To an ex ten t th i s image wasnot overdrawn. Amer ica ' s engineer ing cadre wasrecrui ted f rom three pr incipal sources at this t ime.M en f rom each of these sources wen t on to achievedi s t inc t ion f rom engineer ing accompl i shmentstha t p rofoundly in f luenced the Am er ican pa t t e rns of indus t r i a l g rowth and wes tward expansion (Rae, 1967:330).

The f i rs t and most obvious source was Europe,where Br i t i sh appren t i ce- t r a ined t echnologi s t she ld a commanding indus t r i a l edge . Br i t i sh-American relat ions , however , were abras ive to theexten t tha t England had imposed s t r ingent ru lesforb idd ing emigra t ion of t echnica l ly t r a ined m en.How ever , the engineer ing adv anta ge of an un developed land, r ich in natural resources , pre-


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vai l ed . S izab le numbers of t r a ined European eng ineer s , inc lud in g a num be r from Eng land , s e izedthe oppor tun i ty to superv i se the cons t ruc t ion andopera t ion of Amer ican cana l s , r a i l roads , andother indus t r i a l pur su i t s . Many, such as German-born John A . Roebl ing , Engl i sh-born SamuelS la te r , and French-born E louthere I r enee DuPontrem ained to occupy pro min ent pos i tions in Amer ica ' s budding engineer ing communi ty . Thi s in fus ion of talent f rom each of Europe's dominantengineer ing powers led to a merging of ideologieswhich se t the Amer ican pa t t e rn of engineer inggro wth ap ar t f rom th at of i ts Eu rop ean or iginators (Rae, 1967:331) .

The second source was the Uni ted States Mili tary Academy at West Point . In 1802, Congressauthor ized the Corps of Engineers to t rain al imi ted number of cade t s a t Wes t Poin t . TheAcademy was in tended to be the count ry ' s f i r s tengineer ing schoola role not fulf i l led unt i l thesuper in tendent ' s involvement w i th bu i ld ing har bor defenses was eliminated after the war of 1812.Reo pen ed in 1813 wi th Sylvanus Tha ye r as super in tendent and r emodeled a f t e r the EcolePoly technique , the Academy proceeded to f i l l agreat nat ional service by providing an urgent lyneeded body of t rained engineers . For over adecade the Academy was the on ly ins t i tu t ion inthe Uni ted S ta tes where academic prepara t ion inengineer ing could be ob ta ined . Rensse laer Polytechnic Ins t i tute, founded in Troy, New York, in1824, became the country 's f i rs t nonmil i taryschool to offer an engineer ing curr iculum. Althou gh the num be r of engineer ing graduates f romR.P.I , remained smal l for some t ime, they wereins t rumenta l in es tab l i sh ing the count ry ' s r a i l road networks , which had a vi tal inf luence onAmer ica ' s wes tward expans ion (Rae , 1967:332) .

The th i rd and by f a r the mos t common sourceof American engineers dur ing the f i rs t half of thecentury was the sel f -educated, who f requent lycoupled the i r exper ti s e w i th app ren t i ce or on- the-job t r a in ing . Whi le such methods would be in adequate in today ' s t echnologica l ly or i en ted society, they were remarkably successful in theirt ime. In fact , some of Am erica 's greates t 19th-

century engineers rose f rom the ranks of the self-educated to become leading f igures in the engin ee r i n g co mmu n i t y . O c t av e C h an u t e , f o r i n s t ance , began h i s career as a cha inman wi th acrew surveying the Hudson River Rai l road androse to the pos i t ion of chief engineer of a numberof western rai l roads . In addi t ion, he was respons ible for a number of major engineer ing endeavors , inc lud ing the Missour i R iver b r idge a tS t . Char les , the Kansas C i ty br idge , and theChicago s tockyards , which was yet another fundamental factor in America 's plans for westwardexpans ion . Chanute l a t e r became a cen t ra l f igurei n t h e A mer i can ae r o n au t i ca l co mmu n i t y .

As t echnology cont inued to grow and becomeincreas ing ly more complex , the ex i s t ing methodsof t r a in ing engineer s were inade qua te to meet th eneeds of Amer ica ' s expanding economy. The r e quirement for formal ly educated engineers wasmost acute in the nor theas tern s tates , which haddeveloped into a major industr ial center . In response, a number of univers i t ies in the Northeas tin t roduced engineer ing cur r i cu la . These un iver s it ies includ ed H ar va rd (1847) , Yale (1850) , thePolytechnic Ins t i tute of Brooklyn (1854) , andCoo per Unio n (1859) . To fur ther s t im ula te engineer ing educa t ion , Congres s pas sed the Mor r i l lLa nd -G ran t Col lege Act of 1862. Th is act , granting land to the states for support of "colleges ofagr icu l tu re and the mechanic a r t s " was eventually responsible for the founding of sixty-sevenland-grant col leges geographical ly disbursedthroughout the Uni ted S ta tes (Rae , 1967:332) .

While this enormous growth of interes t in eng ineer ing educa t ion was t ak ing p lace , Amer icanengineers were a t t e m pt in g to acqui re profes s iona lrecogni t ion by organizing technical societ ies s imi lar to those in Great Br i tain. As in Great Br i tain,the American Society of Civi l Engineers , foundedin 1852, was the first of Am eric a's te chn ica l societies to gain recognition. This was followed in1871 wi th the Am er ican In s t i tu te of M inin g Eng ineer s and the Amer ican Socie ty of Mechanica lEngineers founded in 1880 (Rae, 1967:333) .


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E n g i n e e r s a n d A e r o n a u t i c sBy the lat ter half of the 19th century, engi

neer ing ha d ac qui red the d imens ions of a c rea t iveforce with the capaci ty to shape the physical andeconomic growth of nat ions . In the process , engineers had gained conf idence in their under lyingphi losophy of so lv ing prac t i ca l p roblems throu ghappl icat ion of a few wel l -unders tood pr inciples .In fact, i t was precisely because of this nature ofthe i r t r a in ing and employment tha t engineer swere so pecul iar ly sui ted for the s tudy of aeronaut i cs . Mos t were t r a ined to apply a broadgeneral knowledge to a var iety of s i tuat ions andconsequen t ly were accus tomed to work ing on newproblems, of ten in unrelated f ields of endeavor(Crouch, 1979:7) .

In Engla nd , a nu m ber of engineer s had becom esuff icient ly interes ted in aeronaut ics to found theAe ron aut ic al Society of Grea t Br i tain in 1866.While the total membership of the Society wassmall, i t consisted of some of the most successfulengineers in Europe, who took an act ive par t indirect ing the course of the organizat ion. TheirAnnual Report, aimed at an audience of scient is tsand engineers , served the important funct ion ofbr ing ing a profes s iona l approach to aeronaut i ca lstudies. For years after publication of the firstvolum e in 1868, the Annual Report was the pr inciple Engl ish- language source for ser ious s tudies inaeronaut ics (Crouch, 1979:8) .

As in Br i tain, respected members of the Frenchand German engineer ing communi t i es fos te redprofessional interest in flight through publicationof engineer ing journa l s . L'Aeronaut, which firstapp ear ed in Par is in 1869, and Revue deL'Aeronautique, wh ich followed in 1888, were b othpubl ished with this idea in mind. The f i rs t Germa n av ia t ion journ a l in ten ded for a t echnica lau d i en ce , Zeitschrift fur Luftschiffahrt und Physik derAtmosphase, did not app ear u nt i l 1882, bu t ar t icleson f l ight had appeared in other German engineer ing journ a l s a lmos t a decad e ear li e r (Crouch ,1979:8).

Th us , by 1875 , no ted Eu ropea n engineer s hadopenly expressed the opinion that f l ight was a

pract ical problem to be solved by appl icat ion ofengineer ing means . I t r emained , however , fo rengineers to progress beyond theoret ical s tudiesthrough sys temat ic exper imenta t ion to cons t ruct ion of operat ing f l ight vehicles . Francis Herber tW en h am, a f o u n d i n g memb er o f t h e A e r o naut ical Society of Great Br i tain, was one of thefirst professional engineers to recognize the needfor genera t ing exper imenta l da ta under cont rol led tes t condi t ions . His use of the wind tunnelfor study of the lif t characteristics of bird wingsled to important discover ies later incorporated inconstruction of full scale vehicles. In many respec t s , Wenham was the pro to type of a long l ineof expe r ime ntal is ts , inclu ding such inf luent ial f igu r es a s A l p h o n s e P en au d , H i r am M ax i m , C l ement Ader , and others , who assembled the base ofempi r i ca l ev idence which cu lmina ted in the success of 1903 (Cr ouc h, 1979:10).

O t to L i l i en tha l , a German engineer , had begunserious work on the problem of flight in 1879. Inaddi t ion to conduct ing and publ i sh ing a c las s ica lseries of studies on lif t and air resistance, Lilienthal designed and built a series of successfulmonoplane and b ip lane g l ider s . As a p ioneer inf l ight tes t ing, Li l ienthal completed over 2,000flights prior to his death in 1896 in a glidingaccident . Percy Sinclai r Pi lcher , a Br i t ish engineer , cont inued in the L i l i en tha l t r ad i t ion andl ike the German master also died in a gl ider crash(Crouch, 1979:13) .

By 1898, Euro pea n f ligh t exper im enta t ion hadsuffered a number of ser ious setbacks . Li l ienthalwas dead and o ther exper imenta l i s t s had e i therexhaus ted the i r funds or become d i scouraged . A tabout this t ime, aeronaut ical leadership shif tedto the Uni ted S ta tes , where a un iq ue com mu ni tyof exper imental is ts were working in the spir i t ofin formed coopera t ion . A l though not formal lyorganized a long l ines of the European communi t ies , there were def ini te l ines of communicat ionand par t i c ipa t ion a t conferences and o ther ac t iv ities.

Geographical ly disbursed centers of act ivi ty,loca ted in Chicago , Washington , and Bos ton ,were kept informed of each other 's progress


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t h r o u g h O c t av e C h an u t e , w h o h ad d ev e l o p ed aninterest in aeronautics in 1872 as a result of i tsrelat ion to the problems of ai r res is tance in br idgedes ign. By 1890, Ch an ut e 's pub l icat ion act ivi t iesand ex tens ive cor respondence w i th major aeronautical f igures had led to his recognition as oneof the world 's bes t informed aeronaut ical authorities. His promotional ef for ts of aeronaut ics includ ed org aniz at ion in Ch icago in 1893 of theIn terna t iona l Conference on Aer ia l Naviga t ion ,in which a number of p rominent Amer ican engineers enthus ias t ical ly par t icipated. Too old forac t ive par t i c ipa t ion in g l id ing exper iments ,Chanute r emained in f luen t i a l by h i r ing a groupof young engineers to produce vehicles of hisdes ign whi le pur su ing the i r own aeronaut i ca lideas . In 1896, the Chanu te-spo nso red gl idert r ials held in Indiana were enthus ias t ical ly repor ted by the press to gain nat ional recogni t ionof Am erica 's involve me nt in aero nau t ical research (Crouch, 1979:15) .

A second major aeronau t i ca l cen ter deve lopedi n W as h i n g t o n , D . C , w h en S amu e l P i e r p o n tLangley be cam e Secre ta ry of the S mi thsonianIns t i tut ion and hired t rained engineers to ass is thim with f l ight exper iments involving bothmodels and a full-scale vehicle. As one of thecountry 's most dis t inguished scholars and Secretary of a revered ins t i tut ion, Langley 's interes t inf l ight and commitment to prove i ts feas ibi l tymade the subject a mat ter of publ ic interes t .La ngl ey's visibili ty an d 1896 successes with steampowe red model s p rovided the r ead ing publ i c w i thconvinc ing ev idence tha t the a i rp lane was indeeda real possibili ty. In a sense, Langley's successfulf l ights wi th s team powered models proved hisor iginal thes is , but he was determined to press ontoward the u l t imate goa l o f manned , poweredf l ight . With funding f rom the Army Board ofOrdinance and For t i f i ca t ion , Langley cont inuedhis research, only to exper ience crushing defeatw h en h i s man n ed Aerodrome twice failed to fly inthe fall of 1903 (Crouch, 1979:15).

Whi le aeronaut i ca l r esearch cen ter s were deve lop ing in Chicago and Washington , a th i rd onewas being es tabl ished in Boston. The central

f igure of this gro up was Ja m es M ean s , a ret i redshoe manufac turer , publ i sher o f The AeronauticalAnnual, and a per sonal f ri end of bo th C ha nu teand Langley . Means es tab l i shed the Bos ton Aeronaut ical Society to sponsor seminars , contes ts ,and exper iments . While this society also provideda means for d i s seminat ing aeronaut i ca l in format ion, the main interes t of the Boston center appear s to have been d i r ec ted more toward model ing and g l id ing exper iments than toward powered, m an ne d f l ight (Crouch , 1979:15).

Although lesser aeronaut ical groups were establ ished in other regions of the country, theirinf luence remained local and remote f rom thema ins t r eam of Am er ican aeron aut i ca l ac t iv i ty inthe clos ing years of the 19th century. The looselyo r g an ized co m mu n i t y o f A mer i can ae r o n au t i ca lenthus ia s ts had reach ed i ts high p oint in 1896, thevery year in which Wilber and Orvi l le Wrightbegan to take a serious interest in flight. Unlikemost of the men involved with aeronaut ics , Wilber and Orvi l le Wright were not t rained engineers. Both however , had comple ted h igh schooland ha d suff icient kn owledg e of m ath em atic s an dphysics to unders tand the pr imit ive analyses conta ined in conte mp orary aerona ut i ca l l i t e r a ture .Moreover , they had developed their manual ski l lsth rough shop exper ience and were accus tomed tosolving mechanical problems (Crouch, 1979:19) .

F r o m t h e b eg i n n i n g , t h e W r i g h t s ap p r o ach edf l ight in a more sys temat ic way than others beforethem. Aware of their need for sel f -educat ion, theWr ight s embarked on a de ta i l ed s tudy of theaeronaut i ca l l i t e r a ture . Dur ing th i s per iod , theWr ight s r ead cr i t i ca l ly , fo rming the va lue judgments which enabled them to der ive maximumbenef i t f rom the work of their predecessors . Theyalso contacted the leaders of America 's aeronaut i ca l communi t i es and sought the advice ofLangley and Chanute . Based on th i s r esearch theWrights devised a successful demonstrat ion ofpow ered f light in Decem ber of 1903. W hile theirapproach encompassed cer t a in ideas f rom ear l i e rresearchers , their own talent and met iculous at t en t ion to expe r imen ta l de ta il enabled them tofar surpass their predecessors . Most important ly,


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the Wrights devised an intui t ive solut ion to thebas ic problems of control which set their workapart from all prior efforts (Crouch, 1979:19).The success of Wilbur and Orvi l le Wright atK i t ty Hawk was no t the product o f chance orluck, as some would bel ieve. I t was the culminat ion of two generat ions of engineer ing research inaeronaut i cs . By accumula t ing exper iences , byrais ing cr i t ical ques t ions , by ref ining data, andanalyzing fai lure, the Wrights came to real izetha t th e central i ssue of fl ight concerne d controland the way to resolve it was research in the air .Wi th penet ra t ing c la r i ty , Wi lbur Wr ight compared the i r l earn-by-doing approach wi th r id inga fractious horse. "If you are looking for perfectsafety," he stated, "you will do well to sit on afence a nd w atc h th e birds , bu t i f you real ly wish

to l earn you mus t mount a machine and becomeacquainted with i ts t r icks by actual t r ial" (Mc-Far land , 1953:99) .In real izing what has been character ized as"one of civi l izat ion 's greates t accomplishments ,"the Wrights personif ied the emergence of engineer ing as a major creat ive force.

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t sMany of the ind iv idua l s who made prominentcontr ibut ions to the technology of f l ight have

at t racted l i t t le his tor ical at tent ion, al though theiraccompl i shments s t imula ted progres s in aerospace development . Wri ters interes ted in biographical informat ion on these technologis ts soondiscover tha t such mater ia l is scat tered throu ghout the l i terature and remains to be assembled inconv enient form. This book is wri t ten to br ingtogether as much of this material as is l ikely toprove useful . I t i s nei ther an encyclopedic t reatment of vi tal contr ibut ions to f l ight technologynor a comprehensive source of those responsiblefor them. Ins tead, i t represents a s tar t ing point ,

to be expan ded upon as t ime an d resourcesp e r mi t .Th e 129 b iograph ica l ske tches a re a r r ange d ina topical format . Ea ch topic is int ro du ced withan overview of events of technical interes t . Biographies of p r inc ipa l co nt r ibu tor s a re a r r an ged inthe chronologica l o rder o f the i r main cont r ibut ion.

A task as elus ive as ident i fying individ ualsresponsible for specific developments in flighttechnology requires the ass is tance and cooperat ion of persons with special ized knowledge. Thes ta f f o f the Nat iona l A i r and Space Museum,Smithsonian Ins t i tut ion, admirably fulf i l led thisfunct ion. I especial ly want to acknowledge myapprec ia t ion to Michae l Col l ins and Melv in Z i s -fein, the former director and deputy director ofthe Museum, respect ively. I also wish to expressmy grat i tude to the fol lowing individuals for theirass is tance in the preparat ion of this work: DonaldLopez and Freder ick C . Durant I I I were cons tan tsources of enco urage me nt . Dr . R icha rd Hal l ion ,Dr . Thomas Crouch , and Dr . Roger B i l s t e inproved to be inexhaust ible sources of sugges t ionsand his tor ical ins ights . Walter Boyne, Rober tMey er , J a y Spencer , and Frank W inter werewelcome advisors with special ized knowledge ofaeronaut i cs and as t ronaut i cs . Cather ine Scot t ,Dominic P i sano , and Mimi Schar f o f the museum's l ibrary ass is ted in locat ing biographicalinformat ion on a number of technologis ts referenced in l i t t le-known repor ts and publ icat ions .Pa r t icu lar recogni t ion is exte nde d Li l l ian Koz-loski for her pat ience in typing the manuscr ipt .

I am also grateful for the cooperat ion andass is tance of the American Ins t i tute for Aeronaut i cs and As t ronaut i cs H is tory Commi t teechai red by Dr . Eugene Emme. F ina l ly , I t ake th i soppor tun i ty to thank Profes sor Char les H . G ibbs -Smi th , f i r s t occupant o f the L indbergh Chai r o fAerospace H is tory , who rev iewed the manuscr ip ta t an ear ly s t age and sugges ted numerous addi t ions and correct ions .

Buoyant Fl ightObserva t ion of o rd inary ph eno m ena such as

cloud format ions or r is ing smoke most probably prompted ear ly scholar s to en ter t a in the no t ionof f loat ing through ai r . Ear ly concepts were based


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largely on conjecture and erroneous conclus ionson the na ture of the a tmosphere , which prec ludeda sys temat ic approach to the problems of f l ight .This s i tuat ion prevai led unt i l i t was discovered,ear ly in the 17th century, that ai r has weight .Only then did at tent ion turn toward f inding asubs tance l igh ter than a i r and a su i t ab le meansfor i t s conta inment .

The French au thor Savin ien Cyrano de Ber -gerac was among the f i rs t to set upon the r ightt rack (Ege, 1974:6) . In novels wri t ten around1650, he descr ibed f ict ional journeys to the moonand sun made poss ible by a novel scheme cons is t ing of bot t les of dew a t tac he d to a bel t . As thebot t les were heated by the sun the wearer wasf loated skyward os tens ibly by the sun 's at t ract ionfor dew. Of course, de Bergerac 's scheme wasimpract ical and his reasoning suspect but hispremise was correct: moist air is less dense thandry ai r and tends to r ise. De Bergerac 's schemewas based on a popular t r ick by which an eggshel lr epor ted ly can be made to momentar i ly l ev i t a teby addin g a smal l am oun t of dew and p lac ingthe sealed shell in the hot sun (Hart, 1972:50, 51).In pr inciple, as the shel l heats , the dew vapor izesca usin g the shell to rise in bo uy an t flight.

Other concepts , dat ing to the 17th and ear ly18th centur ies , were based on more convent ionalideas and serve as indicators of the rate at whichthe fund am enta ls of bo uy an t f light were ass imilated. In 1670 the Jesu i t Fa the r Francesco deLana-Terzi proposed an ingenious des ign for aflight vehicle; i t was to be supported by four largeevacuated spheres made f rom very th in coppersheet. Each sphere was to be 25 feet (7.62 m) indiameter and was to be fabr icated f rom 0.0044-inch (0.1118-mm) thick foi l (Nayler and Ower ,1965:6) . De Lana reasoned that by creat ing avacuum in the spheres they could be made toweigh less than the ai r they displaced whichwould cause the vehicle to r ise. (To the wri ter 'sknowledge de Lana's reasoning represents the f i rs ta t t e m pt to apply Archimed e ' s buoya ncy pr inc ip leto l ighte r- tha n-air f light . Un for tu nate ly his calculat ions may have been in er ror , s ince eachsphere would weigh approximate ly 400 pounds

and provide a much lower amount of buoyantl i f t . ) Correct in pr inciple, the scheme was impract ical s ince de Lana neglected to account for theeffect of atm osp her ic p ressure, whic h wou ld hav ecollapsed the fragile spheres.

The f i rs t recorded successful demonstrat ion ofa l igh ter - than-a i r veh ic le is a t t r ib u te d to ano the rc l e r g y man , F a t h e r L au r en co d e G u s mao . T h i sdem ons t ra t ion is r epor ted to have t aken p lace on8 August 1709 in the presence of the royal cour tof Por tugal . Gusmao's vehicle was a near-class icexample of a hot ai r bal loon. I t cons is ted of al ight wooden f ramework covered with a paperskin. Hot ai r , generated by a smal l f i re containedin a basket suspended below the bal loon, enteredthe bal loon through an opening in i ts base. Laterrumors sugges t tha t Gusmao made a ba l loonascension but there is no evidence to conf i rm this(Ege, 1974:7).

B a l l o o n sDu r ing the 18 th cen tury m uch of the E urop eanscient i f ic movement was motivated by the bir thof interes t in the physical sciences . Henry Cavendish, an Engl ish chemis t , discovered hydrogenin 1766 and proved i t was an element capable ofq u an t i t y p r o d u c t i o n . T h e d i s co v e r y p r o mp t edother scient is ts to conduct exper iments with hydrogen-f i l led soap bubbles in an at tempt to determine the l i f t ing power of the gas .Apparen t ly insp i red by observa t ion of c loudformat ions , the Montgol f i e r b ro ther s , Josep h andEt ienne , exper im ented unsuccess fu l ly w i th s t eam -f i l l ed ba l loons . Abandoning the i r exper imentswith s team, they erroneously concluded, in 1782,that smoke was a myster ious gas caused by combus t ion and unwi t t ing ly in t roduced hot a i r in tothe i r ba l looning exper ime nts (G ibbs -Sm i th , 1970:

17). Th e unm an ne d ba l loon rose ob l ig ing ly . Ap paren t ly una wa re of Gusm ao ' s ear l i e r success , theMontgol f i e r s independent ly a r r ived a t the sameconclus ion .When news of the ascent reached Par is , i tmot iva ted J . A . C . Char les to beg in developmentof a s imilar device. Char les , however , was un-


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10 S M I T H S O N I A N S T U D I E S I N A I R A N D S P A C Eaware that the Montgolf iers had used hot ai r asthe medium of d i sp lacement and dec ided to usehydrogen . From h i s exper ience as an exper imenta l i s t , Char les knew hydrogen could be producedfrom iron fil ings and sulfuric acid, but he wasalso aware that the subt le gas would escapethrough the bal loon fabr ic. To prevent this , hecontac ted the R obe r t b ro ther s , who had d i sso lvedrubber in tu rpent ine and covered the f abr ic w i than impervious layer of the mixture. A smal l balloon was constructed and successful ly launchedf rom the Champ de Mars , Par i s , on 17 Augus t1783.

After centur ies of dreams and speculat ion,manned f l ight in a Montgolf ier bal loon occurredin Par is on 21 No vem ber 1783. O n 1 Dec em berof the same year, also at Paris, a similar feat wasaccompl i shed in a hydrogen ba l loon tha t wass ignif icant ly m ore advan ced th an i ts hot-ai r coun te rpar t . Char les ' hydrogen ba l loon incorpora tednear ly al l the features of modern bal loon des ign,including a valve l ine to permit the aeronaut torelease gas and control the descent , an appendixto al low the expanded gas to escape and preventrupture of the bal loon, and a nacel le that consisted of a wicker basket suspended from a network of ropes cover ing the bal loon . These featuresset the s tandards of construct ion unt i l new mater ials made s t ratospher ic bal loons poss ible (Nay-ler and Ower , 1965:6) .

These p ioneer ing ascent s mark ed the be ginningof a romant ic chapter in the his tory of f l ight . Theappe al of ba l looning r ap id ly a t t r ac ted an en thu siastic following from scientists who viewed thebal loon as a means for extending their knowledgeof the a tmosphere . More adventurous soul ssought dis tance and al t i tude records , whi le thosewith a mil i tary bent viewed the bal loon as asource of advantage. I t did not take long, however , to discover the main disadvantage withbal looning. Once ai rborne in f ree f l ight , the balloon f loated pass ively, wi th the wind in commandof direct ion and des t inat ion. A dream had beenpartially fulfil led, but the price had been control.Ser ious enthus ias ts recognized this f law almostimm edia te ly and began to exper imen t w i th m an

ual ly dr iven ai rscrews, oars , and even sai ls , butabsence of a sui table engine was to remain aser ious handicap to buoyant f l ight unt i l the mid-19th century.

AirshipsThe f i r s t s t ep toward u l t imate ly t r ans formingthe bal loon into an ai rship was made as ear ly as1784 (Nayler and Ower , 1965:15) . In that yearJ .B.M. Meusnier , an off icer in the French army,began des ign of an el l ipsoidal-shaped bal loon.W heth er ins t inc t o r observa t ion of some n a tura lshape l ed Meusnier to conclude an e longatedshape would have less drag is unknown, but hisjudgment was l a t e r conf i rmed by the low dragairship hul ls of the 1930's . Meusnier 's ai rship

des ign showed considerable promise but was rendered impract ical by the absence of a sui tableengine . When ca lcu la t ions r evea led tha t 80 menwould be required to generate the speed necessaryfor control effectiveness, the growth in requireds ize precluded success . Al though his conceptearned Meusnier a place in his tory as the oneresponsible for the pract ical ai rship form, thevehicle was never bui l t .Severely handicapped by the s low rate of deve lopment of the in te rna l combus t ion engine , the

a i r sh ip never the les s cont inued to be improved .By 1897, three bas ic s t ructural types of ai rshiphad a l r eady been developed: non- r ig id , s emi r igid, and r igid. The f i rs t two have much incommon, whereas the r igid ai rship is in a class byitself.

In the non-r igid and semi-r igid ai rship, theshape of the envelope is ma in ta in ed by keepingthe internal gas pressure at a level slightly inexcess of ambient pressure (Nayler and Ower ,1965:17). The excess internal pressure is determined f rom ant i c ipa ted opera t ing loads and mus tbe sufficient to prevent excessive distortion orbuckl ing due to ei ther ai r loads caused by motionor forces resulting from externally carried loads.T he sem i-r igid ai rship is cha racte r ized by a keel ,which extends along much of the length of theairsh ip. Th e kee l, of cou rse, serves to stiffen the


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N U M B E R 4 11envelope and ass is ts in carrying the appl ied loads .Both external and internal keels were used.

In the r igid ai rship, the shape of the envelopeis m ain ta in ed by an in te rna l s t ruc tura l ske le ton(Nayler and Ow er , 1965:24). Com posed pr inc i pa l ly of l igh tweight longi tud ina l members connected by r ing-s t i f feners or t ransverse wire bracing, the internal s t ructure is des igned to carry al lexternal ly appl ied loads . Rigid ai rships eventual ly came to be cal led Zeppel ins , af ter CountFerd inand von Zeppel in , who was a lmos t en t i r e lyresponsible for their development f rom 1898 unt i lhis death in 1917.His tor i ca l ly , the t echnica l deve lopment of theairship closely centers on the act ivi t ies and cont r ibu t ions of th ree men: A lber to Santos -Dumont ,Hen r i Ju l l io t , and Ferd in and von Zepp el in .A lber to Santos -Dumont , who l a te r ga ined d i s t inct ion as a pioneer in ai rcraf t development , wasunquest ionably the most inf luent ial f igure in thedevelopment of the non- r ig id a i r sh ip . Dur ing h i sbr ie f en ch ant m ent w i th l igh ter - than-a i r f ligh t, hebuilt a total of fourteen airships. A colorful Braz i l i an who had r e loca ted in Par i s , San tos -Dumontd id m uch to popular i ze the a i r sh ip . On 13 Novem ber 1899, San tos-D um on t ci rcled the Eif felTo we r in his highly successful No . 3 ai rship. T woyears later , in Octo be r 1901, he won th e D eutsch

de la Meurthe prize offered for the first airship tof ly a seven-mile course f rom St . Cloud around theEiffel Tower and return in less than half an hour(Nayler and Ower , 1965:17) .W h i l e S an t o s - D u mo n t w as p o p u l a r i z i n g t h enon- r ig id a i r sh ip , Henr i Ju l l io t , a French engi neer , was working at the des ign of a much largerand more ambi t ious semi - r ig id a i r sh ip . Employedby the we al thy L eba udy bro ther s , Ju l l io t ' s f ir sta i r sh ip , the Lebaudy, was of an advanced des ign,which per formed a dm irab ly (Nayler and O wer ,

1965:18). Later responsible for design of a seriesof semi-r igid ai rships commiss ioned by var iouscou ntr ies in Eu rop e, Jul l io t s ignificant ly improved a i r sh ip per formance before immigra t ingto the Uni ted S ta tes .Another colorful f igure in the history of airshipd ev e l o p men t , C o u n t F e r d i n an d v o n Z ep p e l i n

p ioneered development of the r ig id a i r sh ip . Recogniz ing the advantages of l a rge a i r sh ips , Zeppel in 's f i rs t ai rship had a volume of near ly400,000 cubic feet (11,200 cub ic meters) (Nayleran d Ow er. 1965:24). First flown in 1900, thevessel was marginal ly sat is factory, but lackedstruc tural s ti ffness. C onv inced of the futu re oflarge r igid ai rships , Zeppel in founded his company a t F r i edr ichshafen and proceeded to develop a long series of rigid airships. In spite ofseveral ear ly fai lures , he persevered and inaugurated regular passenger service with a fleet of fourairships from 1910 to 1914.Zeppel in 's company f lour ished, gained a reputa t ion as the l eader in r ig id a i r sh ip manufac tureand produced the great ai rships of the 1920's . Astable of talented engineers , including such notables as Ludwig Diir r and Kar l Arns tein, wererecrui ted. After Zeppel in 's death in 1917, theseengineers cont inued to develop r igid ai rships inthe t radi t ion es tabl ished by Zeppel in at Fr iedr ichshafen. Di i r r was responsible for the des ignand construct ion of over 100 r igid ai rships , including the i l l - fated Hindenburg, w h i ch b u r n ed a t

Lake hurs t , New Jer sey , af te r a t r ans -At lan t i cflight.Once r egarded as a s e r ious long- range compet i tor for the ai rplane, the ai rship decl ined in pop

ularity as successive generations of aircraft wereremarkably improved . Ext remely vu lnerab le , thelarge airships of the 1930's experienced a series ofdisas ters . One by one the leading countr ies ina i r sh ip manufac ture began to abandon the a i r ship. After the loss of the Akron an d t h e Macon,the Uni ted S ta tes w i thdre w f rom fur ther a i r sh ipdevelopment . Grea t Br i t a in had a l r eady done soafter losing the R-101 . The t ragic loss of theHindenburg was the final blow. Since 1918, thehistory of rigid airships had been one long seriesof disas ters . Even the non-r igids had ceased toserve a useful funct ion al though a few smal l non-r igids survive to serve a l imited use in adv er t is ing .

Only the ba l loon remains to car ry on the romant ic t r ad i t ions of man ' s ear l i es t fo rm of humanflight. After creditable service as instruments ofwar and sc ience , ba l looning has once aga in ap-


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12 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES I N A I R A N D SPACEpealed to the fancy of the spor tsman. The recentrevival in bal looning, wi th modern vers ions of thehot a i r ba l loon aga in a t t r ac t ing an en thus ias t i cfol lowing, has happi ly brought buoyant f l ight"full circle."

B i o g r a p h i c S k e t c h e sM ichel Joseph Mon tgolf ier

1740-1810Etienne Jacques Montgolf ier

1745-1777Invention of the practical hot air balloon

The Montgolf ier brothers were two of s ixteenchi ldren bo rn of P ier re Montgol fi e r , a paper ma nufac turer ne ar Anno nay , France . Joseph was self-t aught in mathemat ics and sc ience , whereasEt ienne was schooled in mathemat ics and arch i t ec ture .

The prec i se r easons tha t p rompted Joseph , whowas the f i rs t to become interes ted in aeronaut icalmat te r s , to become in te res ted in l igh ter - than-a i rflight are not known, but his activities soon att r ac ted h i s younge r bro ther . A l though pop ularaccounts would have one be l i eve the Montgol -fiers ' discovery of the hot air balloon was li t t lemore than a for tui tous accident , there is evidencethat their approach was far more sys temat ic, eventhough they lacked an appreciat ion for the l i f t ingcapabi l i ty of hot ai r .Fam il iar wi th Jose ph Pr ies t ley 's essay dea l ingwith his observat ions of var ious gases , includinghydrogen , the bro ther s exper imented w i th smal lbal loons f i l led with s team. They also appear tohave exper imented with other gases before becoming at t racted to the poss ibi l i ty of t rying amyster ious gas that they bel ieved was produced

by combust ion and made vis ible in the form ofr is ing smoke. While this conclus ion was erroneous , they conduc ted an e xper ime nt w i th a smal lbal loon f i l led with smoke f rom a mixture of burning s t raw and mois t wool . When the bal loon roseobedient ly, the Montgolf iers er roneously con

cluded its capacity for l if t was derived from thesmoke.At the r eques t o f the French Academie desSciences , the Montgolf iers made their f i rs t publ icdemons t ra t ion w i th a smal l ho t a i r ba l loon a tAn non ay on 4 Ju n e 1783. M an ne d f ligh t in aMontgol f i e r ba l loon was made in the same yearby J . F . P i l a t r e de Rozier and the M arq ui sd 'Ar landes on 21 November .

REFERENCES: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, C h a r l e sScr ibners Sons, 1974; Lennar t Ege, Balloons and Airships,M a cm i l l a n , 1974 ; J . L . N ay le r and E . O w er , Aviation: ItsTechnical Development, V ision Press , 1965.

Jacques-Alexandre-Cesar Charles1746-1823

Invention of the practical hydrogen balloonJacques -Alexandre-Cesar Char les was born inBeaugency, France, but l i t t le is known of hisfamily or early life except that he received al iberal , nonscient i f ic educat ion. As a young manhe moved to Par is where, af ter a per iod of employment with the bureau of f inances , he acquired an interes t in exper imental physics .The Montgolf iers ' f i rs t publ ic exper iment witha hot ai r bal loon took place at Annonay on 4Ju ne 1783. Thi s demo ns t ra t ion na tura l ly a t t r ac ted grea t a t t en t ion and when news of theevent reached Par is i t mot ivated Char les to begindevelopment of a s imilar device. I t appears thatChar les was not aware of the Montgolf iers ' use ofhot air as a source of l if t and decided to usehydrogen . Real i z ing the impor tance of p revent ing hydrogen permeat ion he en l i s t ed the a id ofthe Rober t brothers , who had successful ly dis so lved rubber in tu rpent ine , and developed arubber ized s i lk envelope to contain the gas . Asmall bal loon was con structed an d successfully

launc hed f rom the Ch am p de Mars , Par i s , on 17Aug ust 1783. T he f i rs t m an ne d f light in a hyd rogen bal loon took place at Par is on I December1783, with Char les and the e lder Rober t as pas sengers .

Char les developed near ly al l the features of


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NUMBER 4 13modern ba l loon des ign inc lud ing the va lve l inetha t permi t s the aeronaut to cont ro l the r e leaseof gas for descent , the appendix that preventsrup ture of the ba l loon sack due to gas expans ion ,and the nacel le that consis ts of a wicker basketsuspended f rom a network of ropes cover ing theba l loon .

REFERENCES: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, C h a r l e sS c r ibne r s S ons , 1974 ; L enn a r t E ge , Balloons and Airships,M a cm i l l an , 1974 ; J . L . N ay le r and E . O w e r , Aviation: ItsTechnical Development, V ision Press , 1965.

Alberto Santos-Dumont1873-1932

Pioneering work in air navigation and light generalaviation aircraft

A l b e r t o S an t o s - D u mo n t w as b o r n o n C ab an g uFarm at Rocha Dias vi l lage in the Dis t r ict of JoaoAyres in the State of Minas Gerais , Brazi l . At thet ime of h i s b i r th h i s f a ther , Henr ique Dumont ,was a rai lway construct ion engineer with theDom Pedro l l Rai lway (Braz i l i an Rai lway) . H isfather later turned to agr icul ture, became a wel l -known farmer and the "coffee king" of his t ime.

At the age of 18, Sa ntos -Du m ont was sent toPar is , where he was tutored in physics , chemis try,e lec t r i c i ty , and mechanics by a Frenchman, Mr .Garcia. While in Par is , he ordered f rom MaisonLachambre his f i rs t spher ical bal loon, Brazil.After competing successfully in his second balloon, America, he abandoned aeros tat ion ( i .e . , f reebal loon f l ight) and devoted himself to solving theproblem of s t eer ing a ba l loon . Developing theconcept of the ai rship, he bui l t the Santos-DumontN o . I, a ciga r-shap ed hydrogen-f i l led bal loonpowered by a 3.5 horsepower engine. His No. 2airship was des troyed in an accident on i ts maidenflight, bu t his No . 3 pro ved h ighly successful. O n13 No ve m ber 1899 the N o. 3 ai rship ci rcled theEiffel Tower , before proceeding to Bagatel le ,where i t landed without incident . The f l ight establ ished the real i ty of ai r navigat ion.

S an t o s - D u mo n t co n t i n u ed w i t h l i g h t e r - t h an -air f l ight for some t ime before turning to heavier-

tha n-a ir f light . O n 23 Oc tob er 1906, un aw ar e ofthe Wrights ' success , he f lew his 14-Bis, an awkward box-ki te canard biplane. I t was the f i rs tf l ight in Europe in a powered heavier- than-airvehicle.

By 1909 , San tos -Du mo nt had modi f i ed h i s des ign and in t roduced the Demoiselle (Dragonf ly) ,the forerunner of today's l ight general aviat ionaircraft . He completed his last known flight as ap i lo t in November of the same year and abandoned aviat ion because of fai l ing heal th. Dishear tened by the use of ai rcraf t for mil i tary purposes dur in g Wor ld W ar I , he r e turned to Braz i lin 1931. Fu r th er s ickened by the bo m bi ng of hiscou nt rym en du r ing the 1932 Braz i l ian R evolut ion, he commit ted suicide at the age of 59.

REFERENCES: F e r n a n d o H i p p o l y t o D a C o s t a , Alberto Santos-Dumont, V A R I G M a i n t e n a n c e B a s e, 1 97 3 ; C h a r l e s H .G i b b s - S m i t h , Aviation, H er M ajes ty ' s S t a t i ona ry O f f i ce ,1 9 7 0 ; J . L . Nayler and E . Ower , Aviation: Its Technical Deve lopment, V ision Press , 1965.

Henri Jull iot1856-1923

Notable contributions to the technology of non-rigid an dsemi-rigid airships

Henri Jul l iot was technical di rector of the sugarref iner i es be longing to the weal thy Lebaudybro ther s , P ie r re and Paul , when they commis s ioned him to des ign an ai rship. The Lebaudy,com pleted in 1902, was an ad van ced d es ign ofthe semi-r igid type. When tes ted at Moisson on13 No vem ber 1902, i t prov ed to be super ior tooth er airships . In 1905, the French gov ern m entpur cha sed th e ai rship for arm y use. T he successof the Lebaudy es tab l i shed Ju l l io t as a capableairship des igner who later bui l t several ai rshipsfor the French army, Russ ia , Germany, and Grea tBr i t a in .

A graduate in mechanica l engineer ing f rom theCe ntra l School of Eng ineers at Par is , Jul l iot wasborn a t Fonta inebleau , France . Dur ing the ear lyyears of W orld W ar I , Jul l i ot wa s director ofaero nau t ical wo rk for France . In 1915, he emi-


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14 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES I N A I R A N D SPACEgra ted to the Uni ted S ta tes where he was namedgeneral manager for the ai rcraf t divis ion of theGoodr ich Company. Whi le in th i s capac i ty , hedes igned and produced a var ie ty of observa t ionbal loons and smal l non-r igid ai rships .

REFERENCES: O b i t u a r y , New York Times, 22 M arch 1923 ;L e n n a r t E g e , Balloons and Airships, M acM i l l an , 1974 .

Ferdinand von Zeppelin1838-1917

Development of t h e rigid airshipAlthough the idea of the r igid ai rship did notor iginate with von Zeppel in, i t s development betwe en 1898 an d 1924 was so m uc h the result ofh i s work tha t the t e rm "d i r ig ib le" became syn

onymous w i th h i s name. Descended f rom nobi l i ty , von Zeppel in was born in Konstanz on theBodensee, Germany. After complet ing his s tudiesa t the Poly technic School in S tu t tgar t , the Uni vers i ty of Tu bi ng en , and the Mil i tary School atLudw igsburg , he jo ine d the s ta ff o f the Qu ar te r mas ter Genera l o f the Wi i r t emburg army as al ieutenant in the Corps of Engineers . Ris ing tothe rank of general , von Zeppel in ret i red f romservice in 1891 after a bril l iant career duringwhich he repeatedly dis t inguished himself as acombat soldier .Having witnessed the mil i tary use of bal loonswhi le a vo lunteer w i th the Union Army dur ingthe Amer ican C iv i l War , von Zeppel in tu rned tothe des ign of r igid ai rships af ter ret i rement . Hisfirst design of a dirigible was completed in 1894.Unable to convince the German government ofthe mil i tary potent ial of the r igid ai rship, vonZeppel in inves ted his own weal th to bui ld thefirst Zeppelin, which flew successfully in 1900.Working with funds raised by publ ic subscr ipt ion,von Zeppel in so improved the performance of histhird Zeppel in (completed in 1906) that the German government provided f inancial aid for further deve lopment .

T h e Deutschland, Ze pp elin 's i l l-fated No . 7, isrecognized as the first airship specificallyequipped for passenger t ranspor t . As the f i rs t of

the f leet of passenger ai rships run by the DeutscheLuftshiffahrt A.G., Deutschland crashed heavi lyonly six days after her maiden flight. All thirty-three passengers were saved but the ship wasser ious ly damaged and had to be d i smant led .U n d au n t ed b y t h e d i s a s t e r , t h e co mp an y o p e r ated regular passenger service with a fleet of fourairship s from 1910 to 1914. A total of m ore th an34,000 passengers were served by these ai rships ,which f ea tured comfor tab le accommodat ions forabout twenty passengers with a buffet servedalof t . The Zeppel in ai r l iners marked the ini t ialap pro ac h of comfor t in ai r t ravel .

REFERENCES: A lf red H e im , "F e rd inand von Z eppe l in , "Country Life, 1937; J . L . Nayle r and E . Ow er , Aviation: lisTechnical Development, V ision Press , 1965.

Ludwig Diirr1878-1956

Significant contributions to the technology of rigidairships

Ludw ig Di i r r jo ined Co unt von Zeppel in ' s o rgan izat ion at Fr iedr ichsha fen in 1899, af ter complet ing a year of service with the navy at Wil-he lmshaven . Born in S tu t tgar t , Germany, on 4Ju n e 1878 , D i i r r com ple ted B i i rger schule an dReal schule and a l though he a t t ended the Mas -ch inenbauschule ( engineer ing school ) in S tu t t gar t he apparen t ly d id no t g raduate .

Whi le w i th the Zeppel in organiza t ion , D i i r r ' sgrasp of theory and appl i ca t ion earned theCo un t 's respect . In 1902, whi le working on th eL Z - 2 , he proposed use of t r ia ng ula r section g irdersin order to resist bending forces in all planes.Named technica l d i r ec tor o f the company in1 9 0 4 , Diir r int roduced bas ic technical innovat ions into r igid ai rship des ign.Diir r was an able dir igible pi lot and, beginningwith the LZ -3, pa r t icip ate d in f lights of al l ai rships made at Fr iedr ichshafen. During his careerwi th the Luf tsch if fbau Zeppe l in G m bH , he wasresponsible for the des ign and construct ion ofover 100 r igid ai rships , includ ing th e i l l- fated


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NUMBER 4 15Hindenburg, w h i ch b u r n ed at Lakehurs t , New Jer sey.

REFERENCES: D. H. R o b i n s o n , Giants in the Sky, U nive r s i t yo f W ash in g ton P res s, 1973; O b i t u a r y , New York Times, 3J a n u a r y 1956; D u n c k e r and H u m b o l t , Neue Deutsche Biographic, Berl in 1959; Enciclopedia De Aviacion y Aslronaulica, Edi-c ion G ar r iga , vo lum e 2, 1972.

Karl Arnstein1887-1975

Development of principles fundamental to the stressanalysis of rigid airship structures

Du r ing h i s career , Kar l Arns te in earned a r eputa t ion as the wor ld ' s mos t no ted au thor i ty onairship s t ructures . Born in P r ag u e , B o h emi a (nowCzechos lovakia) , he a t t en d ed the Univers i ty ofP r ag u e , g r ad u a t i n g w i t h the degree of Doctor ofTechnica l Sc iences in 1912. Appo in ted an assistant professor of br idge des ign at the Univer s i ty ,h e ea r n ed a r ep u t a t i o n t h r o u g h o u t E u r o p e for hisexper t knowledge of stress analysis. Accepting aninv i t a t ion to j o i n the Luftschif fbau Zeppel inG m b H at Fr iedr ichshafen , Germany, in 1914, hedi rec ted his a t t en t i o n to the stress analysis of rigidairship s t ructures . Arns tein s tayed with the Z ep p e l i n co mp an y as chief engineer unt i l 1924 whenh e came to the Uni ted S ta tes and j o i n ed theG o o d y ea r - Z ep p e l i n C o r p o r a t i o n in A k r o n , O h i o ,as technical di rector of aircraf t cons truct ion.

In 1940, w h e n the G o o d y ea r - Z ep p e l i n C o r p o ra t ion abandoned in te res t in airship construct ionan d ch an g ed its n a m e to the Goodyear Aircraf tC o mp an y , A r n s t e i n r ema i n ed as vice-pres identand ch ief engineer .Arns te in publ i shed numerous a r t i c l es on thetheory of s t ruc tures (par t i cu lar ly on airships) ,a n d is cred i t ed w i th the design of over 70 mil i t a ryand commerc ia l a i r sh ips inc lud ing the A mer i cana i r sh ip Los Angeles. In ad d i t i o n to des ign ing twomili tary r igid ai rships of 6,500,000 cubic feet(182,000 cubic meters) capaci ty for the U.S.Navy, Arns te in d i r ec ted des ign and cons t ruc t ionof the U.S.S. Akron and U.S.S. Macon.

REFERENCES: The Blue Book of Aviation, The H o a g l a n dC o m p a n y , 1932; Who's Who (1942) , The A. H. M a r q u i sC o m p a n y ; L e n n a n t Ege, Balloons and Airships, M a c m i l l a n ,1 9 7 4 .

Auguste Piccard1884-1962

Development of t h e pressurized gondola used o nstratospheric research

Augus te P iccard f i r s t a t t r ac ted wor ld-wide att en t ion when , as a professor of physics at thePoly technic Ins t i tu te of Belg ium, he i n v en t ed apressur ized gondola for s t r a tospher ic r esearch .The P iccard tw ins , Augus te and Jean Fe l ix , wereborn to Ju les and Helene P iccard in Basel, Switzer l and , where the i r f a ther was a professor ofchemis t ry at the Univer s i ty of Basel . Both brothers had dis t inguished careers in ae r o n au t i c s andshared s imi la r in te res t s th rough much of the i rlives. R ea r ed in Basel , they a t t ended the O b e r eReal schule and, u p o n g r ad u a t i o n in 1902, att en d ed the Swiss Ins t i tute of T ech n o l o g y inZur ich . Augus te earned his degree in mech an i ca lengineer ing , whereas Jean took his in ch emi ca lengineer ing . The b r o t h e r s t h en co n t i n u ed ingraduate s chool and were awarded doctora tes innatura l s c ience . Augus te r emained at the SwissIns t i tu te of T ech n o l o g y in Zur ich un t i l 1922 andthen moved to Brussels as a professor of physicsat the Poly technic Ins t i tu te of Brussels.

In 1931 and the fol lowing year , Piccard es tablished two wor ld a l t i tude r ecords in a bal loonfitted with a s t r a tospher ic gondola tha t he hadinvented . The g o n d o l a , n amed FNRS for F o n d sN a t i o n a l de Recherche Sc ien t i f ique , which fin an ced it, was a s p h e r i ca l a l u mi n u m cab i n w i t ho x y g en eq u i p men t and a p p a r a t u s for m a k i n gscientific observations at al t i tu de. Picc ard 's f lightsproved it was possible to survive in the s t r a tosphere .In 1946 P iccard anno unc ed his plans to explorethe ocean depths in a b a t h y s cap h e d e s i g n ed onbal looning pr inc ip les . He successfully accompl ished his object ives in his b a t h y s cap h e , w h i ch


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16 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES I N A I R A N D SPACEreached a depth of more than 10,000 feet (3000m ) . He died in his home in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 March 1962.

REFERENCES: A n n a R o t h e , e d i t o r , Current Biography, T h eH . W . W i l son C om pany , 1947 ; L enna r t E ge , Balloons andAirships, M acM i l l an , 1974 .

A e r o d y n a m i c sIn the popular mind the t e rms " sc ience" and

" technology" have acqui red a vaguely synonymous meaning, yet the motives of science dif ferma rked ly from those of technolog y. Th e formeris concerne d wi th unde r s tand ing m an ' s envi ronment , the lat ter wi th control l ing i t to achieve aspecif ic object ive. Throughout his tory there havebeen numerous occas ions when this formal barr ierof purpose has been crossed as scient is ts andtechnologis ts uni ted in a common cause of accompl i shmen t . Such is the case w i th aerodyn amics .

When a t t empt ing to encapsula te the h i s tor i ca ldev elop me nt of aero dyn am ics from i ts incept ionto i ts present pos ture as a recognized branch ofmathematical physics , i t i s convenient to recognize three pr inciple per iods in which dis t inctchanges in emphasis occurred. The ear l ies t ofthese per iods extends f rom Newton's publ icat ionof the first rational theory of air resistance in1687, to internat ional acceptance of the need forsyste ma tic resea rch of fl ight-related pro ble m s in1915. Du rin g m uc h of this format ive per iod, aerodynamics was main ly an empi r i ca l endeavor w i thl i t t l e emphas i s on r igorous mathemat ica l deve l opm ent . As the advent o f fl igh t becam e app aren t ,the long reluctant forces of science mustered in as incere commi tment to the ac t iv i ty .

Th e per iod 1915 thro ugh 1935 was one ofunprecedented coopera t ion be tween sc ien t i s t sand engineers . While scient is ts accepted s tudy ofincom press ible flow ph en om en a ( i .e. , the movement of bodies through ai r at " low" speeds) as atopic for r igorous mathematical scrut iny, engineers addressed the problems of progress ive refinement of aircraft . As low speed aer od yn am icsproved a sub jec t amenable to mathemat ica l description, the combined efforts of these two fac

t ions led to an impress ive body of conf i rmedtheory .As ai rcraf t perform ance s teadi ly impro ved , theres t r ict ion of incompress ible f low became increasing ly unrea l i s t i c . Dur ing September and Octoberof 1935, leadin g aero dyn am icis ts from aro un d th ewor ld ga thered for the V ol t a Conference on H ighSpeeds in Avia t ion . Held in Campidogl io , I t a ly ,

the conference s t imulated subsequent research inhigh speed aerodynamics , a topic which ident i f iesthe main technological emphasis of the per iodini tated in 1935.

T h e F o r m a t i v e Y e a r s , 1 6 8 7 - 1 9 1 5In order to unders tand the his tor ical development of aerodynamics and to apprec ia te the difficulties e xpe rienc ed by its pion eers, i t is necessaryto return to the era in which mechanics was

founded . L ong a topic for de ba te, the f irst rat ion altheory of ai r res is tance, der ived f rom fund am ental pr inciples , i s at t r ibuted to Isaac Newton(1642-1727) , who publ ished his conclus ions inthe classical treatise Philosophae Naturalis PrincipiaMathematica in 1687 (von Karman, 1954:9) . Int roduced at a t ime when the calculus was in i tsinfancy, Newton's formulat ion of mechanics didnot ga in immedia te acceptance ; consequent ly ,ear ly 18th century bal l is t icians cont inued to drawtheir conclus ions f rom direct exper iments . Theirdata on ai r res is tance were acquired ei ther bymeans of a whir l ing arm or by observat ion offalling bodies. None of this early work on airres is tance was in any way motivated by the wil lto fly.

I t appe ars th at Sir Georg e Cay ley (1773-1857)was the f i rs t to appreciate the aeronaut ical s ig-


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NUMBER 4 17nif icance of the bal l is t icians data. His vis ion andunder s tanding of the pr inc ip les of heavier - than-air f l ight , f i rs t publ ished in a three-par t paper in1809-1810, g rea t ly in f luenced ear ly aerodynamicpursu i t s (G ibbs -Sm i th , 197 0:21-30 ) . Th ere followed a ser ies of inf luent ial , but premature, at tempts to direct ly apply Cayley 's ins ight to modeland full scale flight vehicles. Unfortunately, i l l-conce ived conf igura t ions , coupled w i th s t ruc tura lor power plant def iciencies , resul ted in a lengthyseries of failures.

Invent ion of the wind tunnel , f i rs t int roducedin Grea t Br i t a in by Franc i s Herber t Wenhamand Jo hn Brow ning in 1871 , was a l andm ark inthe cause to r ender aerodynamics amenable tosys temat ic s tudy (G ibbs -Sm i th , 1970:39) . V as t lysuper ior to the whi r l ing a rm , the w ind tunnel wasused to test a variety of shapes usually selectedby intui t io n or observ at ion of bi rd wing cha racter is t ics . In t ime, the super ior i ty of the windtunnel as an aerodynamic tes t device led to format ion of the f i rs t laborator ies devoted to thes t u d y o f a e r o d y n a mi c p h en o me n a .

Not a l l aerodynamic inves t iga t ions were conducted in ground tes t faci l i t ies . One of the mostinf luent ial me n in the his tory of aviat io n, O t toLi l ienthal , int roduced f l ight tes t ing as a means ofconf i rming empi r i ca l ly de termined aerodynamicconclus ions . After complet ing an extens ive s tudyon the aerodynamics of b i rd w ings , par t i cu lar lywith regard to wing area and l i f t , Li l ienthalbegan work on a ser ies of gl iders . Achieving success with his thi rd vehicle, he cont inued to tes this aerodynamic conclus ions in gl iding exper i ments unt i l his t ragic death in 1896 (Gibbs-S mi t h , 1 9 7 0 : 7 2 - 8 0 ) .

Li l ienthal had approached f l ight in the spir i tof a t rue ai rman. An appreciat ion of this spir i ts t imulated the Wright brothers to fol low a s imilarcourse of act ion. When f l ight exper iments fai ledto conf i rm the i r empi r i ca l ly de termined expec tat ions , they r e turned to the l abora tory to conductmore t es t s and r e f ine the i r aerodynamic da ta . Ina r emark ably shor t per iod the W r ight ' s conf i rmedtheir bel iefs , par t icular ly with regard to the effect iveness of wing warp for rol l control . The Wright

brother 's success in achieving manned f l ight in acont ro l l ed , powered , heavier - than-a i r veh ic lemus t be a t t r ibu ted pr imar i ly to the i r met icu lousex p e r i men t a t i o n an d s u p e r b ae r o n au t i ca l j u d g m e n t .In common wi th mos t engineer ing subjec t s a tthe tu rn of the cen tury , aerodynamics was l a rge lyan emp i r ic a l v en t u r e . J u d g m en t w as g u i d ed an dconclus ions r eached by in te rpre ta t ion of exper i men t a l d a t a r a t h e r t h an p r ed i c t i v e ma t h ema t i ca ltheor ies . As is so of ten the case with technology,prac t i ce preceded theory .Coinc ident w i th the Wr ight ' s success , o theraeronaut i ca l r esearcher s were becoming conv inced tha t the empi r i ca l approach to aerodynamics was a major faul t , which could be cor

r ec ted on ly th rough sys temat ic r esearch . Thi sconvic t ion was par t i cu lar ly preva len t in cont inen ta l Europe where the t r ad i t ions of engineer ingtended to favor the class ical approach of predict ing behavior th rough mathemat ica l ana lys i s . In1904, D imi t r i R iabo uchin sky founde d th e Aerod y n ami c I n s t i t u t e a t K o u t ch i n o , n ea r M o s co w ,and immedia te ly began cons t ruc t ion of su i t ab letes t faci l i t ies . The fol lowing year , Alexandre Gustav E i f f e l o rganized an aerodynamics l abora toryin a suburb of Par i s . Ludwig Prandt l , who hadbeen ac t ive ly engaged in aerodynamics r esearchs ince accept ing a chair at the Univers i ty of Got-t ingen in 1904 , opene d an aerody nam ics l ab oratory in the outskir ts of tow n in 1908. T h e Bri t ishgov ernm ent fol lowed sui t, in 1909, by form ing anAdvisory Commi t tee for Aeronaut i cs as a s epara te dep ar tm ent o f the Nat iona l Phys ica l Lab oratory . By 1910, these labo rator ies , equi pp ed withthe mos t advanc ed w ind tunne l s of the t ime, werea l l engaged in sys temat ic r esearch of ae rody nam icp h en o men a ( H a l l i o n , 1 9 7 7 : 4 ) .

European scient is ts were remarkably successfulin the i r ear ly a t t empts to compose mathemat i cal ly t ractable theor ies of l i f t and drag. TheG e r m a n m a t h e m a t i c i a n M a r t i n W i l h e l m K u t t abecame in te res ted in aerodynamic theory as aconsequence of L i l i en tha l ' s g l id ing exper iments .K ut ta addres sed the problem of why a curvedsurface produces a positive lif t . At the insistence


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18 S M I T H S O N I A N S T U D I E S I N A I R A N D S P A C Eof his professor , S. Fins terwalder , Kut ta publ ished a paper on the subject in 1902 (Giacomell iand Pis tol les i , 1963:348) .

In Russ ia, Nikolai Zhukovski became interes ted in the same problem. Between 1902 and1909, he developed the mathe m at ica l foundat ionsfor a theory of l if t on a wing section in twodimens ional f low . Both Kut ta and Zhukovskii n d ep en d en t l y h ad ma d e th e s ame f u n d amen t a lassumption of smooth f low at the t rai l ing edge.The as sumpt ion , now ca l l ed the Kut ta -Zhukovskicondition, is the salient point in the theory of l if t .With i t , the whole problem of l i f t becomes purelya ma t t e r of ma t h em a t i c s ( vo n K a r m an , 1 9 5 4 : 5 0 -54).

In Germany, Ludwig Prandt l addres sed thepro blem of f r ictional dra g. In 1904, at the T hir dIn tern a t ion a l Congress of M athe m at ic ian s he ldin Heidelberg, Prandt l showed that for a f luid ofsmall viscosity, such as air, the effect of viscosityis l imited to a thin layer adjacent to the surface,the so-cal led boundary layer . This ins ight permit ted essent ial s impli f icat ions that made f r ict ional drag access ible to mathematical analys is(von K arm an 1954:88) .

Meanwhi le George Har t l ey Bryan , a mathemat ics professor in England, publ ished, in cooperat ion with W. S. Wil l iams, an epoch makingpaper on the longi tudinal s tabi l i ty of gl iders . Inthe paper , Bryan in t roduced severa l comple te lynew concept s inc lud ing the equat ion govern ings tabi l i ty . Too advanced for i ts t ime, the paperwas not immediately accepted, but he persevered.Seven years later , in 1911, Bryan pub l ished hisStability in Aviation, a book regarded as a classic inaviat ion his tory.

While European scient is ts were successful lyproving tha t aerodynamics was a sub jec t ame

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