Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky
Jegorowitsch Nikolai Zhukovsky (Russian Николай Егорович Жуковский, scientific transliteration Nikolai Zhukovsky Egorovic, often as Joukowski transcribed; * 5 Januarjul / January 17 1847greg in Orechowo, Vladimir province, .. † March 17, 1921 in Moscow) was a Russian mathematician, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. He is considered the father of Russian aviation.
After his mathematics and physics at the University of Moscow, he became a professor at the Technical School in Moscow, where in 1886 he was appointed head of the newly created for him by his mechanical institute successful scientific work in the field of hydrodynamics.
Research and teaching
Nikolai Zhukovsky was particularly interested in the technical application of currents. He put up today recognized basis for understanding the dynamic lift, the formation of vortices and the design of aircraft for stable flight. He checked calculations repeatedly in experiments and observations could be incorporated into theoretical ideas. In the field of hydrodynamics Zhukovsky could prevent research shows that hydraulic lines burst pressure surges. Further research found its application in water management.
As early as 1890, he developed a very keen interest in aviation. He experimented with rotating cylinders in the wind, trying to understand the experimentally been proven Magnus effect and the buoyancy. In 1895 he visited Otto Lilienthal in Berlin, was deeply impressed and bought one of the gliders, Lilienthal offered for sale.
He led the 1902 construction of the first wind tunnel. The first aerodynamic institute in Europe, he founded near Moscow in 1904. In 1906 he published a formula based on complex numbers, after the lift of a wing profile is proportional to the circulation around this profile. Since 1902 Martin Kutta had already discovered this formula, it was called the Kutta - Zhukovsky formula. With this formula, first lift-generating profiles could be developed. Particularly well known is the Zhukovsky profile, which is obtained from a circular profile by Kutta - Zhukovsky transformation. A few years later he published the first systematic readings with the results of his aerodynamic research.
From 1912 to 1918 he worked out a theory first propeller for ship propeller, on the basis of propellers were developed later. Other research focused on the roll and the stability of ships, numerous problems of hydro- mechanics, mathematics and astronomy, as well as the water supply. In World War I he had a pilot in the aerodynamics.
In 1918 he founded and eventually led Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev together with the Central Aero and Hydrodynamic Institute ( TsAGI ) in Moscow, where focused research and development of the Russian aerospace industry today. The Institute is now named after him in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow. He was beyond 1919, the founders of the aviator pilot, from 1922, the Military Academy of Engineers of the Air Force, " Prof. J. N. Zhukovsky " was formed.
Since 1920 there has been a Zhukovsky Prize, awarded annually for the best work in mathematics and mechanics. On his 100th birthday two Zhukovsky medals were awarded annually for the best research in the field of aviation since 1947.