Word: karman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Born in Budapest in 1881, Scholar von Karman was an assistant professor at the Royal Technical University in 1903, when the Wright brothers made their first flight. Nine years later he was head of the newly organized Aeronautical Institute at Germany's University of Aachen. In 1928 he took a research job at Caltech, settled there permanently in 1930, became a U.S. citizen...
...first-level restaurant of the Eiffel Tower, high above the rooftops of Paris, 200 guests gathered last week to honor a hero of aviation, Dr. Theodore von Karman, who had reached his 75th birthday. The guest list read like a bluebook of aviation, and most of the guests, now generals, admirals, statesmen or heads of corporations, had known and admired Von Karman and his eccentric genius for decades. Without the principles of aerodynamics that he discovered, they could not be building or flying high-speed modern aircraft...
Vortex Trail. As World War II came near, Von Karman turned more and more to military design. As adviser to the U.S. Army Air Forces, he worked on jet engines, rocket motors, high-speed wind tunnels. Most of his work was theoretical. The principles that bear his name (e.g., the Karman Vortex Trail, the Karman double-modulus theory of columns) have no meaning for laymen (or for most airmen), but modern aerodynamics is based solidly on them...
When asked to talk about Von Karman, air scientists are often at a loss to explain his abstruse theories, but they never lack affectionate anecdotes about the man himself. Never did a genius act more like a genius. Von Karman speaks at least seven languages, but his English carries a heavy load of Hungarian accent. When he used to lecture in the classroom, he supplemented speech with intricate gestures. He often wore a black silk cape and was never without a handkerchief, which he twisted, pulled or even chewed during moments of stress...
...Karman is the model absent-minded professor. After he returns from a long trip, dozens of hats that he has lost dribble back by mail. During the war he was followed around by a special functionary whose duty it was to pick up secret documents that Von Karman left in taxis or hotel lobbies. He is never conscious of traffic: he crosses the most dangerous highway as if it were a country lane. His driving is as famous as his absentmindedness. A friend once suggested that he get three smashed fenders fixed. "Not yet," said Von Karman. He was waiting...