Professors Richard L. Fearn and Wei Shyy wrote a short history of my department [link] – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Florida. Previously, it was a stand-alone aerospace department that merged. It is worth reading and sharing if you have a connection to UF Aerospace. [link]
Category Archives: History
On Living In An Atomic Age, Lewis
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking …
Mythologists and Theologians
“Mythologists and experimental theologians are needed for the development of a new method of attack” Telegram to Meyer while in trenches after recovery which was mistranslated from “Meteorologists and experimental physicists,” where Meyer then traveled and met Fritz Haber (german gas warfar pioneer)
Mach Experiment
On the On-Set of Hypersonics
Almost everyone has their own definition of the term hypersonic. If we were to conduct something like a public opinion poll among those present, and asked everyone to name a Mach number above which the flow of a gas should properly be described as hypersonic there would be a majority of answers round about 5 …
Wright’s Split Flap Patent
Sheet I of the U.S. Patent 1,504.663, by Orville Wright and J. M. H. Jacobs, illustrating their concept of a split flap.
Sonic Boom for Lilliputians
On Large-Scale HPC from Viewpoint of Cebeci
One other aspect should be mentioned. When the program was transferred to El Segundo from Santa Monica, I naturally duplicated some runs. The printout was eight-decimal places, I believe. For a number of steps the new and old tab sheets would check exactly. But then after a while there would be a gradual drift; first …
Continue reading “On Large-Scale HPC from Viewpoint of Cebeci”
Variable Density Wind Tunnel
When visiting NASA Langley I had Josh Blake kindly take my picture by the Variable Density Wind Tunnel. Pioneered by Max Munk, leading theoretician in aerodynamics in America in our early years of aviation. National historical landmark: The test section and airflow passages built into the VDT pressure vessel formed a continuous flow of pressurized …
On the Panel Method
After this I got more into aerodynamic research. The area rule involves calculating the flow about a bumpy body of revolution. Existing methods for calculating it were very poor. K. E. Van Every, my boss, talked to me about looking over the available methods and seeing what was best. I did and discovered an entirely …