It is that time of year again where the World War 2 Airshow occurs near Virginia Beach. Myself and some NASA colleauges headed down on the Saturday to watch flights from 1 pm to approximately 4 pm. It was a beautiful and sunny day. The static dispaly was fun also, including the flight line, and …
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The American Kite Associate visited Virginia Beach recently. They had three areas on the beach fenced off. The first was for open flying. Anyone could go and fly a kite. The second was a static display of many different types of kites. I love octopus – and there were many so that made me very …
Suppose a cylindrical wing (constant chord, incidence, etc.) is placed in an airstream at an angle of yaw — i.e., it is swept back. Now, even if the local speed of the air on the upper surface of the wing becomes supersonic, a shock wave cannot form there because it would have to be a …
Sonnet to TurbulenceStanley Corrsin Shall we compare you to a liminar flow?You are more lovely and more sinuous.Rough winter winds shake branches free of snow,And summer’s plumes churn up in cumulus.How do we perceive you? Let me count the ways.A random vortex field with strain entwined.Fractal? Big and small swirls in the mazeMay give us …
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I recently gave a talk at the NASA Langley 2015 Technical Working Group. Slides are available on my website under presentations. One interesting slide shows mathematical relationships between acoustic analogy (turbulence as a source of sound) and nonlinear propagation (Burgers’ equation).
The Chrysler Museum of Art features a new exhibit on Henri Matisse. Henri Matisse is a master of color and a leader of French artists experimenting in color. When these paintings emerged in the early 1900’s they were ridiculed by contemporary critics of the time. It did not take too long for the critics to …
I have recently published an article in honor of the late NASA Senior Theoretical Aeroacoustician Dr. Fereidoun `Feri’ Farassat. During the first week I worked at NASA, while I was sending a fax, Dr. Farassat literally screamed from the other end of building 1208, Is this how NASA researchers spend their time?‘ I was surprised …
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One hundred years ago, March 3rd 2015, the US Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor organisation of NASA. Every allied aircraft has been tested in some form or another at NASA Langley. NASA has created a few websites to celebrate, NACA 100th Celebration and more NASA Langley specific. It is certainly …
While browsing the Internet I found an interesting website on abstract mathematics by Professor Charles Wells. The site is organized into subsections like chapters in a book. I’m especially interested in the use of different fonts, sizes, and colors to illustrate important points. Perhaps the important points are emphasized because of the experience of the …
I had the pleasure of watching the opera Salome in Norfolk Virginia by the Virginia Opera. My seat was in the front row and off-set a few stage right from the center. Salome is an opera (drama) in one act after the poem of Oscar Wilde, music by Richard Strauss, first performed in 1905. As …
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