Engineering theory in the making: Aerodynamic calculation "breaks the sound barrier"

Technology and Culture

Volumn 38, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 819-851

  Vincenti, Walter G ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0031318996     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3106951     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. For the nature and historiography of engineering science, see David F. Channell, The History of Engineering Science: An Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1989), esp. the introduction.
2. For remarks about the potential value of "self-reflexive" writing in the history of technology, see Joseph J. Corn, "Object Lessons/Object Myths? What Historians of Technology Learn from Things," in Learning from Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies, ed. W. David Kingery (Washington, D.C., 1996), pp. 35-54.
3. Walter G. Vincenti, What Engineers Know and How They Know It (Baltimore, 1990), chap. 4.
4. W. F. Hilton, "British Aeronautical Research Facilities," Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society 70 (1966): 103-7, quotation on p. 103.
5. Richard P. Hallion, On the Frontier (Washington, D.C., 1984), pp. 11-12.
6. For exposition of the wind-tunnel problem, see John V. Becker, The High-Speed Frontier (Washington, D.C., 1980), pp. 62-68. This memoir by a retired NACA research engineer provides an excellent but insufficiently recognized source for various topics discussed here and for the doing of experimental aerodynamic research generally.
7. For the origin and illogical spelling of "transonic" (one s instead of two), see Theodore von Kármán with Lee Edson, The Wind and Beyond (Boston, 1967), pp. 232-33.
8. For the initial encounter of the transonic phenomenon in ballistics (by Benjamin Robins in the 18th century), see Brett D. Steele, "Muskets and Pendulums: Benjamin Robins, Leonhard Euler, and the Ballistics Revolution," Technology and Culture 35 (1994): 348-82.
9. Kármán, pp. 231-32; James R. Hansen, Engineer in Charge (Washington, D.C., 1987), p. 251.
10. Kármán, pp. 231-32; James R. Hansen, Engineer in Charge (Washington, D.C., 1987), p. 251.
11. Hallion, p. 11. For the full story, see chap. 1 and same author, Supersonic Flight (New York, 1972), chaps. 1, 2, 4, and 5. See also Hansen, pp. 275-79, 296-304, and Becker, pp. 88-95.
12. 2 react chemically to form oxides of nitrogen in combination and in proportions that must be measured or calculated for each temperature, pressure, and initial proportion.
13. The names come from the fact that the differential equations for the regions have structure similar to those of the algebraic equations for an ellipse and hyper-bola, respectively.
14. For mathematical exposition of linear theory, see H. W. Liepmann and A. Roshko, Elements of Gasdynamics (New York, 1957), chap. 8.
15. K. Gottfried Guderley, Theorie Schallnaher Strömungen (Berlin, 1957); C. Ferrari and F. G. Tricomi, Aerodinamica Transonica (Rome, 1962).
16. K. Gottfried Guderley, Theorie Schallnaher Strömungen (Berlin, 1957); C. Ferrari and F. G. Tricomi, Aerodinamica Transonica (Rome, 1962).
17. K. Oswatitsch and K. Wieghardt, "Theoretische Untersuchungen über stationäre Potentialströmungen und Grenzschichten bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten," Bericht S13/1D, Lilienthal-Gesellschaft für Luftfahrtforschung (1942), pp. 7-24; A. Busemann and K. Gottfried Guderley, "The Problem of Drag at High Subsonic Speeds," Völkenrode, Rep. and Trans. No. 184, British Ministry of Aircraft Production, March, 1947; Theodore von Kármán, "The Similarity Law of Transonic Flow," Journal of Mathematics and Physics 26 (October 1947): 182-90.
18. K. Oswatitsch and K. Wieghardt, "Theoretische Untersuchungen über stationäre Potentialströmungen und Grenzschichten bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten," Bericht S13/1D, Lilienthal-Gesellschaft für Luftfahrtforschung (1942), pp. 7-24; A. Busemann and K. Gottfried Guderley, "The Problem of Drag at High Subsonic Speeds," Völkenrode, Rep. and Trans. No. 184, British Ministry of Aircraft Production, March, 1947; Theodore von Kármán, "The Similarity Law of Transonic Flow," Journal of Mathematics and Physics 26 (October 1947): 182-90.
19. K. Oswatitsch and K. Wieghardt, "Theoretische Untersuchungen über stationäre Potentialströmungen und Grenzschichten bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten," Bericht S13/1D, Lilienthal-Gesellschaft für Luftfahrtforschung (1942), pp. 7-24; A. Busemann and K. Gottfried Guderley, "The Problem of Drag at High Subsonic Speeds," Völkenrode, Rep. and Trans. No. 184, British Ministry of Aircraft Production, March, 1947; Theodore von Kármán, "The Similarity Law of Transonic Flow," Journal of Mathematics and Physics 26 (October 1947): 182-90.
20. As demonstrated by John R. Spreiter, "On the Application of Transonic Similarity Rules to Wings of Finite Span," Report 1153, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1953.
21. Hideo Yoshihara, letter to the author, 1 October 1995; Becker (n. 6 above), p. 44.
22. Hideo Yoshihara, letter to the author, 1 October 1995; Becker (n. 6 above), p. 44.
23. For the mathematics of transonic small-disturbance theory and the hodograph transformation, see Liepmann and Roshko, pp. 280-83.
24. F. Tricomi, "Sulle Equazioni Lineari alle Derivativo Parziali di 2 Ordine, di Tipo Misto," Atti della R. Accademia Nationale dei Lincei, Serie Quinta 14 (1923): 134 et seq.
25. K. Gottfried Guderley, "Consideration of the Structure of Mixed Subsonic-Supersonic Flow Patterns," Technical Report No. F-TR-2168-ND (October 1947), and "Singularities at the Sonic Velocity," Technical Report No. F-TR-1171-ND (June 1948), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.
26. K. Gottfried Guderley, "Consideration of the Structure of Mixed Subsonic-Supersonic Flow Patterns," Technical Report No. F-TR-2168-ND (October 1947), and "Singularities at the Sonic Velocity," Technical Report No. F-TR-1171-ND (June 1948), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.
27. And later in the journal literature in K. G. Guderley and H. Yoshihara, "The Flow over a Wedge Profile at Mach Number 1," Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences 17 (November 1950): 723-35.
28. Becker (n. 6 above), p. 44.
29. Later issued as Adolf Busemann, "A Review of Analytical Methods for the Treatment of Flows with Detached Shocks," Technical Note 1858, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1949.
30. F. Tricomi, "On Linear Partial Differential Equations of the Second Order of Mixed Type," Frans. A9-T-26, Graduate Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, 1948.
31. F. Frankl, "On the Problems of Chaplygin for Mixed Sub- and Supersonic Flows," Technical Memorandum 1155, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1947. Frankl also proved mathematically that a solution must exist and be unique.
32. R. V. Southwell, Relaxation Methods in Theoretical Physics (Oxford, 1946).
33. Howard W. Emmons, "The Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations," Quarterly of Applied Mathematics 2 (October 1944): 173-95, and "The Theoretical Flow of a Frictionless, Adiabatic, Perfect Gas inside of a Two-Dimensional Hyperbolic Nozzle," Technical Note 1003, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1946.
34. Vincenti, What Engineers Know (n. 3 above), chap. 8, and "The Retractable Airplane Landing Gear and the Northrop 'Anomaly': Variation-Selection and the Shaping of Technology," Technology and Culture 35 (January 1994): 1-33, esp. 21-26.
35. Vincenti, What Engineers Know (n. 3 above), chap. 8, and "The Retractable Airplane Landing Gear and the Northrop 'Anomaly': Variation-Selection and the Shaping of Technology," Technology and Culture 35 (January 1994): 1-33, esp. 21-26.
36. Walter G. Vincenti, Cleo B. Wagoner, and Newman H. Fisher Jr., "Calculations of the Flow over an Inclined Flat Plate at Mach Number 1," Technical Note 3723, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1956.
37. Walter G. Vincenti and Cleo B. Wagoner, "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave - General Analytical Method and Final Calculated Results," Technical Note 2339, and " - Details of Analysis," Technical Note 2588, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1951. These were reissued together as "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave," Report 1095, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1952.
38. Walter G. Vincenti and Cleo B. Wagoner, "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave - General Analytical Method and Final Calculated Results," Technical Note 2339, and " - Details of Analysis," Technical Note 2588, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1951. These were reissued together as "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave," Report 1095, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1952.
39. Walter G. Vincenti and Cleo B. Wagoner, "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave - General Analytical Method and Final Calculated Results," Technical Note 2339, and " - Details of Analysis," Technical Note 2588, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1951. These were reissued together as "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave," Report 1095, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1952.
40. The Caltech results were published later that year in H. W. Liepmann and A. E. Bryson, Jr., "Transonic Flow Past Wedge Sections," Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences 17 (December 1950): 745-55.
41. Julian D. Cole, "Drag of a Finite Wedge at High Subsonic Speeds," Journal of Mathematics and Physics 30 (July 1951): 79-93.
42. Leon Trilling, "Transonic Flow Past a Wedge at Zero Angle of Attack," Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Physik 4 (September 1953): 358-75.
43. Spreiter (n. 17 above), pp. 10-11.
44. For review of theoretical transonic research up to 1975, see John R. Spreiter, "Transonic Aerodynamics - History and Statement of Problem," in Transonic Aerodynamics, ed. David Nixon (New York, 1982).
45. Earll M. Murman and Julian D. Cole, "Calculation of Plane Steady Transonic Flows," AIAA Journal 9 (January 1971): 114-21.
46. Vincenti, Wagoner, and Fisher (n. 30 above).
47. K. Oswatitsch, ed., Symposium Transonicum (Berlin, 1962).
48. T. H. Moulden, Fundamentals of Transonic Flow (New York, 1984); Julian D. Cole and L. Pamela Cook, Transonic Aerodynamics (Amsterdam, 1986); Heinrich J. Ramm, Fluid Dynamics for the Study of Transonic Flow (New York, 1990).
49. T. H. Moulden, Fundamentals of Transonic Flow (New York, 1984); Julian D. Cole and L. Pamela Cook, Transonic Aerodynamics (Amsterdam, 1986); Heinrich J. Ramm, Fluid Dynamics for the Study of Transonic Flow (New York, 1990).
50. T. H. Moulden, Fundamentals of Transonic Flow (New York, 1984); Julian D. Cole and L. Pamela Cook, Transonic Aerodynamics (Amsterdam, 1986); Heinrich J. Ramm, Fluid Dynamics for the Study of Transonic Flow (New York, 1990).
51. Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (Chicago, 1962), p. 179.
52. Vincenti, What Engineers Know (n. 3 above), chaps. 4, 5.
53. Becker (n. 6 above), p. 88.
54. Edward W. Constant II, review of Becker, Isis 73 (1982): 609-10. See also Becker, p. 95.
55. Edward W. Constant II, review of Becker, Isis 73 (1982): 609-10. See also Becker, p. 95.
56. Edward W. Constant II, "Communities and Hierarchies: Structure in the Practice of Science and Technology," in The Nature of Technological Knowledge: Are Models of Scientific Change Relevant ? ed. Rachel Laudan (Dordrecht, 1984), pp. 27-46 (quotation from p. 29), and The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution (Baltimore, 1980), p. 9.
57. Edward W. Constant II, "Communities and Hierarchies: Structure in the Practice of Science and Technology," in The Nature of Technological Knowledge: Are Models of Scientific Change Relevant ? ed. Rachel Laudan (Dordrecht, 1984), pp. 27-46 (quotation from p. 29), and The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution (Baltimore, 1980), p. 9.
58. Philip H. Rhinelander, personal conversation.
59. Vincenti, Wagoner, and Fisher (n. 30 above); and Walter G. Vincenti and Cleo B. Wagoner, "Theoretical Study of the Transonic Lift of a Double-Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave," Report 1180, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1954.
60. Vincenti, Wagoner, and Fisher (n. 30 above); and Walter G. Vincenti and Cleo B. Wagoner, "Theoretical Study of the Transonic Lift of a Double-Wedge Profile with Detached Bow Wave," Report 1180, NACA, Washington, D.C., 1954.
61. Annual Report of the NACA, 1915 (Washington, D.C., 1916), p. 9.
62. Alex Roland, Model Research, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1985), p. 237.
63. Donald MacKenzie, "How Do We Know the Properties of Artefacts? Applying the Sociology of Knowledge to Technology," in Technological Change, ed. Robert Fox (Amsterdam, 1996), pp. 247-63, quotations from pp. 247, 263.
64. For the important analytical distinction between direction and form, see Vincenti, "Retractable Airplane Landing Gear" (n. 29 above), pp. 26-31.
65. Walter G. Vincenti, "The Technical Shaping of Technology: Real-World Constraints and Technical Logic in Edison's Electrical Lighting System," Social Studies of Science 25 (1995): 553-74, and "Retractable Airplane Landing Gear," pp. 26-31. For further discussion and elaboration of real-world and other constraints, see Peter Kroes, "Technical and Contextual Constraints in Design: An Essay on Determinants of Technological Change," in The Role of Design in the Shaping of Technology, ed. Jacques Perrin and Dominique Vinck (Luxembourg, 1996), pp. 43-76.
66. Walter G. Vincenti, "The Technical Shaping of Technology: Real-World Constraints and Technical Logic in Edison's Electrical Lighting System," Social Studies of Science 25 (1995): 553-74, and "Retractable Airplane Landing Gear," pp. 26-31. For further discussion and elaboration of real-world and other constraints, see Peter Kroes, "Technical and Contextual Constraints in Design: An Essay on Determinants of Technological Change," in The Role of Design in the Shaping of Technology, ed. Jacques Perrin and Dominique Vinck (Luxembourg, 1996), pp. 43-76.
67. Mikael Hård, "Technology as Practice: Local and Global Closure Processes in Diesel-Engine Design," Social Studies of Science 24 (1994): 549-85, quotation from 575-76.
68. Edward Constant, personal correspondence, undated.
69. R. A. Buchanan, John Law, and Philip Scranton, "Theory and Narrative in the History of Technology," Technology and Culture 32 (April 1991): 365-93.
70. John Staudenmaier, S. J., "Problemaüc Stimulation: Historians and Sociologists Constructing Technological Studies," in Research in Philosophy and Technology, vol. 15, ed. Carl Mitcham (Greenwich, Conn., 1995), pp. 93-102, quotation from p. 93.
71. Staudenmaier, p. 98. The paragraph in which this quotation appears is especially pertinent to present concerns.