The enigma of the aerofoil : rival theories in aerodynamics, 1909-1930 / David Bloor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bloor, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aerodynamics--History.

Aerodynamics.

Prandtl, Ludwig, 1875-1953.

Prandtl, Ludwig.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 547 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Summary:

In the early years of aviation, there was an intense dispute between British and German experts over the question of why and how an aircraft wing provides lift. The British, under the leadership of the great Cambridge mathematical physicist Lord Rayleigh, produced highly elaborate investigations of the nature of discontinuous flow, while the Germans, following Ludwig Prandtl in Gottingen, relied on the tradition called "technical mechanics" to explain the flow of air around a wing. Here, David Bloor draws upon papers by the participants-their restricted technical reports, meeting minutes, and personal correspondence-many of which have never before been published, and reveals the impact that the divergent mathematical traditions of Cambridge and Gottingen had on this debate. Bloor also addresses the question of why the British, even after discovering the failings of their own theory, remained resistant to the German circulation theory for more than a decade. Book jacket.

Contents:

Mathematicians versus practical men: the founding of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

The air as an ideal fluid: classical hydrodynamics and the foundations of aerodynamics

Early British work on lift and drag: Rayleigh flow versus the aerodynamics of intuition

Lanchester's cyclic theory of lift and its early reception

Two traditions: mathematical physics and technical mechanics

Technische Mechanik in action: Kutta's arc and the Joukowsky wing

The finite wing: Ludwig Prandtl and the Göttingen school

'"We have nothing to learn from the Hun": realization dawns

The laws of Prandtl and the laws of nature

Pessimism, positivism, and relativism: aerodynamic knowledge in context.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226060941

0226060942

9780226060958

0226060950

OCLC:

708763346