Section outline

  • The war in the air hydrodynamic fluids

    Please plan to arrive at the front entrance to the Museum of Technology at 11:30 on Saturday. (Allow time to take tram 60 from the Westbahnhof.) We will briefly visit two sections of the museum, and Matt will then make a presentation. We'll then retreat to the cafe to discuss the readings. (Caffeinated beverages are my treat.) You might want to bring a snack to leave in the lockers, have a bite after we disperse, and then return to visit other parts of the museum.

    Assigned reading:

    The dance around the golden calfScott W. Palmer, "The Russian warrior" and "The marasmus of Imperial aviation" and ""The air fleet is the strength of Russia," in Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia (2006), 56-76. [on-campus only]

    Theodor von Kármán, “War, technology, science,” Pester Lloyd (18 October 1914): 2-3. [original German text] [Hungarian alternative] [see this simulation of the von Kármán vortex street] 

    David Bloor, The Enigma of the Aerofoil: Rival Theories in Aerodynamics, 1909-1930 (2011), 1-8, 410-412.

    [click to enlarge]