Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky ( rus, Никола́й Его́рович Жуко́вский, p=ʐʊˈkofskʲɪj; – March 17, 1921) was a Russian scientist, mathematician and engineer, and a founding father of modern aero- and

hydrodynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) and ...

. Whereas contemporary scientists scoffed at the idea of human flight, Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow. He is often called the ''Father of Russian Aviation''. The

Joukowsky transform In applied mathematics, the Joukowsky transform, named after Nikolai Zhukovsky (who published it in 1910), is a conformal map historically used to understand some principles of airfoil design. The transform is : z = \zeta + \frac, where z = x ...

is named after him, while the fundamental aerodynamical theorem, the

Kutta–Joukowski theorem The Kutta–Joukowski theorem is a fundamental theorem in aerodynamics used for the calculation of lift of an airfoil (and any two-dimensional body including circular cylinders) translating in a uniform fluid at a constant speed large enough so ...

, is named after both him and German mathematician

Martin Kutta Martin Wilhelm Kutta (; 3 November 1867 – 25 December 1944) was a German mathematician. Kutta was born in Pitschen, Upper Silesia (today Byczyna, Poland). He attended the University of Breslau from 1885 to 1890, and continued his studies in Mu ...

Life

Zhukovsky was born in the village of Orekhovo,

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukra ...

Governorate A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either State (administrative division), states or province, provinces, the term ''govern ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. In 1868, he graduated from

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

where he studied under

August Davidov August Yulevich Davidov (russian: Август Юльевич Давидов) (December 15, 1823 – December 22, 1885) was a Russian mathematician and engineer, professor at Moscow University, and author of works on differential equations with pa ...

. From 1872, he was a professor at the Imperial Technical School. In 1904, he established the world's first Aerodynamic Institute in Kachino near

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He was influenced by both

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...

and his son

Ludwig Mach Ludwig Mach (8 November 1868 Prague – September 1951) was an Austrian physician and chemist. Building on the work of Ludwig Zehnder in 1891, Mach added refinements to an instrument which became known as the Mach–Zehnder interferometer. He we ...

. From 1918, he was the head of

TsAGI The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, russian: Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т, ЦАГИ, Tsentral'nyy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut, ...

(Central AeroHydroDynamics Institute). Nikolay Zhukovsky

He was the first scientist to explain mathematically the origin of aerodynamic

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...

, through his circulation hypothesis, the first to establish that the lift force generated by a body moving through an ideal fluid is proportional to the velocity and the circulation around the body. He used a conformal mathematical transformation to define the ideal shape of the aerodynamic profile having as essential elements a rounded nose (leading edge), double surface (finite thickness), cambered or symmetrical, and a sharp tail (trailing edge). He built the first

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

in Russia. He was also responsible for the eponymous

water hammer Hydraulic shock (colloquial: water hammer; fluid hammer) is a pressure surge or wave caused when a fluid in motion, usually a liquid but sometimes also a gas is forced to stop or change direction suddenly; a momentum change. This phenomenon com ...

equation used by civil engineers and the

. He published a derivation for the maximum energy obtainable from a turbine in 1920, at the same time as German scientist

Albert Betz Albert Betz (25 December 1885 – 16 April 1968) was a German physicist and a pioneer of wind turbine technology. Education and career Betz was born in Schweinfurt. In 1910 he graduated as a naval engineer from Technische Hochschule Berlin ( ...

.Gijs A.M. van Kuik
''The Lanchester-Betz-Joukowsky Limit''
, Wind Energ. 2007; 10:289–291 This is known controversially as

Betz's law Betz's law indicates the maximum power that can be extracted from the wind, independent of the design of a wind turbine in open flow. It was published in 1919 by the German physicist Albert Betz. The law is derived from the principles of conserva ...

, as this result was also derived by British scientist

Frederick W. Lanchester Frederick William Lanchester LLD, Hon FRAeS, FRS (23 October 1868 – 8 March 1946), was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering and to aerodynamics, and co-invented the topic of operations ...

. This is a famous example of

Stigler's law of eponymy Stigler's law of eponymy, proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in his 1980 publication ''Stigler’s law of eponymy'', states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. Examples include ...

. In December 1918 , at Zhukovsky's proposal and with his active participation, the Soviet government founded the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), of which he became the first head. At the same time, theoretical courses for military pilots were founded, later transformed into the Moscow Aviation Technical College. The Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet was established on its base in 1920, and in May 1922 it became the Air Force Engineering Academy named after Zhukovsky. Zhukovsky died in

in 1921.

Recognition

A city near Moscow and the crater Zhukovskiy on the Moon are both named in his honor. The State Zhukovsky Prize was established in 1920 'for the best works in mathematics'. The

Russian Air Force " Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , bat ...

's engineering academy was named for him, later reorganized into the

Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force Academy , latin_name = , logo = Great emblem of the Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force Academy.svg , image =File:Military parade on Red Square 2016-05-09 010.jpg , caption = Cadets of the academy at the 2016 Moscow Victory Day Parade. , motto = , established ...

. In May 2016,

's fourth largest

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

was named in his honor.

Mosfilm Mosfilm (russian: Мосфильм, ''Mosfil’m'' ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output incl ...

produced a 1950 eponymous biopic directed by

Vsevolod Pudovkin Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin ( rus, Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, p=ˈfsʲevələt ɪlərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn; 16 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter ...

with music by

Vissarion Shebalin Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (russian: Виссарио́н Я́ковлевич Шебали́н; 29 May 1963) was a Soviet composer. Biography Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical colle ...

, which earned Pudovkin and Shebalin the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

in 1951. The Russian Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute and the Ukrainian

National Aerospace University – Kharkiv Aviation Institute National Aerospace University – "Kharkiv Aviation Institute" , NAU "KhAI" ( uk, Національний аерокосмічний університет імені М. Є. Жуковського «Харківський авіаційний ...

are named after him. The Zhukovsky House is a museum dedicated to his memory File:Museum of Moscow Aviation Institute 2016-02-02 009 (cropped).JPG File:Airfoil geometry.svg Stamp of USSR 1105.jpg, 1947 stamp

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhukovsky, Nikolay Yegorovich 1847 births 1921 deaths Aerodynamicists Aviation pioneers Fluid dynamicists Physicists from the Russian Empire Moscow State University alumni People from Sobinsky District Russian inventors Russian mathematicians 19th-century mathematicians from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian mathematicians Professorships at the Imperial Moscow University Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute employees

Life

Recognition

See also

References

External links