Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association ISSUE 10, APRIL 2013 in This Issue

Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association ISSUE 10, APRIL 2013 In This Issue:

From the Editors ...... 1 The NanoTech Project: a New Research Activity at the von Karman Institute ...... 12 VKI-AA Research Travel Grants...... 2 Where Are They and What Are They Doing? ..... 14 “. . . one day I saw an exciting VKI poster on the bulletin board, which seemed to have been ad- Last-Minute Announcement – Academic Day to dressed to me personally. . . ” Commemorate Theodore von Kármán ...... 17 Interview with Richard R. Tracy, DC 1960 .... 2 Last-Minute Announcement – Marco Giachi (DC 1987) Interviewed by His VKI Alumni Meeting in Lappeenranta, Finland 18 Classmate: Hans-Peter Dickmann, DC 1987 .. 5 Table of Contents of the ﬁrst 10 VKI-AA Newslet- Professor Smolderen’s Aircraft Models...... 7 ters ...... 18

“Where We Stand” Theodore von Kármán’s Re- port on German Aeronautical Research in 19459

From the Editors a subject which you think might be interesting to our readers. Some statistical facts about the contents of the ﬁrst 10 issues:

• 18 reports about current research activities and ‘life’ at VKI • 26 interviews, portraits about alumni and staff

by HANS-PETER DICKMANN, DC 1987 • from 18 DCs and RMs and from 8 different coun- AND EDITOR,EUROPE tries AND • 4 technical articles about Theodore von Kármán JOHN WENDT,FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI (3) and Burt Rutan (1) AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA • 3 reviews of books written by VKI alumni • 12 contributions about alumni reunions and alumni dinners at conferences e are happy and proud to present already the 10th VKI-AA newsletter. An “overall table of In previous issues we already had contributions in- Wcontents” at the end shows what the first 10 forming us that alumni do not always work on fluid newsletters were/are about. This is not done to congrat- dynamics after leaving VKI. In this issue you will find ulate ourselves, but either to make you curious about a report about an alumnus who specialized in very in- previous newsletters if this is the first one you have read teresting optics/light emitting techniques and about an or to more easily find contributions you remember hav- alumnus who quit applying C++ on many different disci- ing read and want to have a second look at. . . and not plines to play and teach music. Most of us work/worked to forget to encourage or inspire you to provide a con- in the field of fluid dynamics, of course—but: Did you tribution yourself for a future newsletter or to propose know that somebody among us worked for a Formula 1

1 Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association team and designed bicycle frames for world champion • Strengthening existing or developing new collabo- cyclists? ration PRESENTANDFUTURE: Read about research today at VKI which probably did not exist when you were • Training on specialized instrumentation equip- a student: There is an impressive report about nano- ment technology. • Acquisition of other complimentary skills PASTANDFUTURE: The third report on Theodore von Kármán’s activities is about German aeronautical • Preparation of joint communications/publications research in 1945 and his impressive forecast regarding aeronautical research at that time which entirely came • Preparation of joint applications for patents true. The VKI-AA is much more than just composing • Scientific prizes/awards newsletters. Please read about a new initiative of your Deadline for submission for first call was January 31, Alumni Association: the development of a VKI-AA grant 2013. to support VKI PhD students during research visits or I am particularly happy to be able to announce that training sessions at laboratories/institutes abroad. As al- 6 applications have been received which are presently ways, we welcome and encourage your feedback so that evaluated by a VKI-AA Selection Committee, The win- this Newsletter, YOUR Newsletter, provides you with the ners of the Research Travel Grant will be notified by the type of information you desire. end of February. This program will be reevaluated by the VKI-AA Board in October 2013. VKI-AA Research Travel Grants

“. . . one day I saw an exciting VKI poster on the bulletin board, which seemed to have been addressed to me personally. . . ” by CLAUS SIEVERDING, DC 1966, VKI-AA PRESIDENT Interview with Richard R. Tracy, DC 1960 t the occasion of its Board meeting of October 6, 2012 the VKI Alumni Association decided to of- Afer grants to VKI Graduates enrolled in the VKI PhD program for enhancing collaborations with other research laboratories by supporting short visits to for- eign laboratories. The aim is to offer an opportunity for in-depth discussions with other experts. In doing so the Alumni Association aims at meeting one of its objectives outlined in the statutes: “. . . perform actions favoring the by JOHN WENDT further innovative development of VKI and enhancing its FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI visibility by strengthening the links between VKI and the AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA Association; establish close relations with selected universities, research organizations, research sponsoring indus- ichard Tracy is the Chief Technology Officer of the tries and governmental agencies.” Aerion Corporation, an organization founded to The Alumni Association has decided to attribute a Rcommercialize the concept of a supersonic busi- total amount of up to e2,500.- for the award of three ness jet based on a laminar flow wing design devel- grants, with maximum amounts of respectively e650.- oped by Tracy. He has had a very interesting career com- and e1,000.- for visits inside and outside Europe. The bining scientific research, entrepreneurial activities and recipients must be necessarily VKI-AA members. business development. Tracy was a member of only the VKI PhD students were therefore invited to submit fourth Diploma Course program (1959-1960) when the written proposals to the Alumni Association of the von Institute carried its original name: Training Center for Karman Institute Experimental Aerodynamics. The candidates were requested to specify their moti- Richard, what or who induced you to apply to the vation in terms of: VKI back in the late 1950s?

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“No one—just a large Poster. I was a couple of years since I had majored in Solid Mechanics and Structures, past an MS at Caltech, working toward a PhD, but had plus a couple of courses in applied physics and fluid dy- been recently demoted to an EngD candidate, and was namics. In those days (late ’50s) Caltech didn’t offer an getting restless. This despite an amazing collection of fa- aero option or even aero courses to under-graduates, so mous and inspiring faculty at GALCIT: Hans Liepmann, my Caltech BS was in Mechanical Engineering. Anatol Roshko, Earnest Sechler, Clark Millikan, and oth- “My Thesis project at VKI was a dream opportunity un- ers, including a brief meeting with the legendary Theodore der Prof. Ginoux to do an experiment in the Mach 2 wind von Kármán himself. Then one day I saw an exciting VKI tunnel. I had become fascinated with Supersonics in the poster on the bulletin board, which seemed to have been last couple of years at Caltech, so an opportunity to actu- addressed to me personally. I soon applied and voilá, I was ally run a supersonic wind tunnel and have the shop re- accepted and heading for Belgium.” sources to develop models and instrumentation was amazing. I measured the heat transfer to a slender cone with both attached flow, and with separated flow over a cav- ity. My results closely confirmed a theory by NASA’s Gary Chapman, which predicted the heat transfer coefficient for separated supersonic flow to be 56% of that for attached flow.” What impact did your year at VKI have on your future career? “First, and most obvious, was that I was suddenly doing leading edge research in Supersonic Fluid Mechanics, and wanted to get back to working on a PhD in that field, either in Europe or at Caltech. As it turned out GALCIT did re-admit me in Fall 1960 to do graduate work in Hypersonic Gas Dynamics under the eminent Lester Lees and a committee including some of the renowned faculty I mentioned above. Beyond these academic impacts, I had Richard receiving his Diploma on the VKI Graduation glimpsed the grandeur and history of Europe, not to men- Day 1960. tion skiing in the Alps and cruising on the Mediterranean, “My preparations, in retrospect, seem pathetic: An un- so I fancied myself not only a budding Scientist but also a ceremonious “sayonara” to Caltech, a few evenings of Citizen of the World, or at least part of it, and hungry to French study, sale of my ’55 T-bird (my total net worth), experience more.” and booking (steerage) on the maiden return voyage of Tell us about your career. the Holland America “Amsterdam” from NY to Rotterdam. “I returned to Caltech, and did a thesis under Lester So began a great adventure for this neophyte traveler.” Lees on heat transfer to a yawing cone at Mach 8, gain- ing a PhD in 1964. My access to Profs Lees, Liepmann and Roshko during this time exposed me to their emerg- ing research on the effect of compressibility in stabilizing the laminar boundary layer, which has greatly influenced, even dominated, the past 25 years of my professional life. On graduation, I accepted a position at National Engineer- ing Science Company, a small think tank in Pasadena CA, doing research in a number of areas from hydrodynamics to hypersonics. I managed several programs, one of which concerned technology for anti-ballistic missile defense systems, and was staffed by several eminent scientists. “Drawn by the lure of independence and commercial success, I left NESCO and co-founded Tioga Wells Corpo- ration to commercialize a series of novel cryogenic natural gas purification processes I invented. This work included Wind tunnel tests. Richard Tracy is on the far left and demonstrations in 1968 of our process in Northern Ger- Andres Garzon is second from the right. many. This gave me an opportunity to visit VKI while some of the faculty from my time were still there, plus a few What did you study at the Institute? What was your students who had stayed and joined the faculty. In 1975 project? Tioga Wells was acquired by McCulloch Oil Company, and “The course of study was mostly aerodynamics- I happily returned to aeronautics, wiser but no richer. oriented – no surprise there, but an eye-opener for me, “In 1976 I was invited (read, “ordered”) by Bill Lear to

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 3 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association come to Reno, NV. (By good fortune I had met Bill a decade “I visited Stanford University often, as Professor of earlier when he flew the prototype Learjet to an airport Aeronautics Ilan Kroo was an early collaborator and has near Los Angeles where I kept my airplane.) Lear was un- since been a major factor in our technical developments. der contract to Montreal-based Canadair, which had been His late wife, Sharon, always insisted that I was the rea- recently acquired by the Canadian Government, and asked son for her decision to attend VKI (editor: as Sharon Stan- me to form an Engineering Group and lead the design of away, DC 1982) and later earn a PhD at Stanford. I the Learstar 600, a large, long range business jet. This also visit my other alma mater, CalTech, whenever pos- aircraft, now the Bombardier Aerospace Challenger 600, sible and often ran into VKI alumnus Dr. Wilhelm Behrens is still in production and is remarkable for several Lear (DC 1961) at GALCIT functions. innovations: “super-critical wing” technology, high-bypass “One more stroke of good fortune occurred as a result engines and the largest business jet cabin in the industry. of VKI. A decade ago just as Aerion got backing, and was After the final design and development were taken over looking for key employees, a young man called to enquire by Canadair, Lear and I turned our efforts to creating the about employment. He had done research in hypersonic LearFan, which was powered by twin Pratt and Whitney laminar flow at VKI, and got my name via the VKI Alumni PT-B turbine engines driving a single pusher propeller, and office. He was in Fort Worth TX, visiting his wife’s fam- was the first civil aircraft with all-carbon composite air- ily, and since I was going there to meet with our investor, frame. It boasted 400 mph speed, comparable to the light we arranged to meet. Suffice to say, Andres Garzon (DC jets soon to be coming from Cessna. Bill passed away in 2003) was exactly the person we needed, and today this 1978, but his fabulous widow Moya was determined to brilliant young man ably leads Aerion’s Computational see the LearFan succeed despite funding challenges and Aerodynamics and laminar flow research. ” changes of executive management. I was too, and continued to run LearFan engineering and development through the successful initial tests of the first prototype and much of the production design, development and testing. The new management and I increasingly diverged, and I finally left in 1982. In 1985 the company entered bankruptcy after two more prototype LearFan aircraft (fully conformed to production design) had completed nearly all tests required for certification, but sadly before production could get un- derway in the fully staffed and equipped factory outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Richard Tracy with Aerion’s supersonic business jet.

Did you have any experiences during your year at VKI that you will never forget? Perhaps something hu- morous? “The very first day at VKI, after introductions and in- doctrination, we were separated into teams to do various projects or experiments. I went with one group to the Two LearFans 2100 (Futura) in flight. Escher-Wyss low speed wind tunnel to measure forces on an aircraft model mounted in the tunnel test section. My “I stayed in Reno and set up an aeronautics consul- late friend, Pete Melcher, was appointed test leader, and tancy, mainly defense-related. But I also renewed my quest he assigned the various tasks, such as tunnel operator, to for efficient supersonic flight that had been ignited during each of us. For the critical job of data recording (pen and my year at VKI. Thus began (in 1982) an odyssey that has clipboard, those days) he selected the senior member of lasted 30 years. This privately funded effort has developed our team, Colonel Yavuz. His credentials included an MS and demonstrated a technology that offers the best overall from Stanford and current active duty in the Turkish Air solution to practical and efficient supersonic flight: natu- Force, so he was not one of us raw recruits, and he firmly ral laminar flow. Along the way I have been fortunate to accepted his assignment, ‘I will do it.’ At each test point share this passion with an exceptional team of scientists when conditions were stabilized and Pete signaled Yavuz and engineers, a board of directors composed of respected to record the data (tunnel power, pressures, model angles leaders of the Aerospace industry, and a remarkable in- and forces, etc.) he would again affirm, ‘I will do it.’ ” vestor, who also conjured the name, Aerion Corporation. “Late in the afternoon when we had completed the test

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 4 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association matrix, and shut down the tunnel, we assembled in the became, during my work, TWT-1 not ‘C’ as cold, but ‘T’ control room to put together our report. When Melcher as. . . tilt-able. The main idea was to simulate the iner- asked Yavuz how the data looked, he replied firmly, ‘I will tial force on the fluid during the take-off run by means of do it.’ First there was stunned silence, then groans, as we gravity and to do this the test section was tilted to – if I saw the blank data sheets, and realized he was too em- remember well – something like 25◦. A crazy idea. In fact, barrassed to admit to his lack of English comprehension. ‘I I think, that facility has never been run in that configura- will do it’ became a running joke for the rest of the year.” tion after my departure.”

Marco Giachi (DC 1987) Interviewed by His Classmate: Hans-Peter Dickmann, DC 1987

by HANS-PETER DICKMANN, DC 1987 AND EDITOR,EUROPE At VKI, 1986. Putting the de-icing ﬂuid on the tilted plane of “TWT-1” (as Marco renamed the CWT-1). arco and Hans-Peter were classmates of the same Diploma Course (1986/87) and they even lived Min the same street in Sint-Genesius-Rode: Avenue Bel Horizon. There are some parallels in their lives after their DC such as working on centrifugal compressors and living together with many women in one house, meaning wife and daughters, of course. There is one re- curring situation when Hans-Peter always thinks about Marco: Sitting in an airplane (as a passenger) at around freezing point temperature outside when the airplane takes an extra shower just before take-off.

Misano, December 1990. Testing the high load set-up for the ﬁrst GP of the coming season.

Marco, what did you do, where did you work directly after your Diploma Course? “As you know, the fascinating world of racing cars was my main objective at the time of my DC. Nevertheless, I started from aerospace and I moved directly from Avenue Bel Horizon in Rhode-Saint-Genèse to Via della Calcinessa in Varese close to Aermacchi. A big change from the dark- Marco receiving his Diploma on the VKI Graduation Day ness of the Forêt de Soignes to the brightness of the lakes 1987. in the north of Italy. I spent three years there and then, ﬁnally, the moment arrived: Lamborghini was looking for Can you imagine why, Marco? a young aerodynamicist to design the new Formula 1 to “Yes, of course. De-icing was my DC project under the be ready for the 1991 World Championship. The techni- supervision of Prof. Mario Carbonaro in the CWT-1 which cal director was Mauro Forghieri (formerly Ferrari chief

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 5 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association engineer for 30 years) and this was even more exciting for me because this person had been my reference when I was a young boy watching television (Niki Lauda, Clay Regazzoni, Ronnie Peterson, etc. . . ) and I had arrived to work with him(!) The Lamborghini driver was Eric Van de Poele, a very nice Belgian guy, so Belgium was still present in my life. Unfortunately, as it often happens to new teams, things did not go very well and I moved from Lamborghini to Planair where I was responsible for their new moving belt wind tunnel located half way between Modena and Ferrara (still active as Aerolab) where Ferrari, Minardi and Aprilia did their tests. Another two years to play with scale models and then the right time arrived to go back home to Florence, get married and start a new (someone says ‘real’) life. I joined Nuovo Pignone in 1994 (almost simultaneously with General Electric’s acquisition) and I must say it was the right thing to do at the right time.” Bonny Island (Nigeria), March 2003. At the end of the job, after having solved a vortex-shedding excited vibration in a piping in front of one of our centrifugal compressors (the compressor was the victim not the cause) Less excitement than racing cars but still a lot of fun. This is a very special career, Marco – you worked in the fields of all the 3 VKI departments: AR (Aerma- cchi), EA (Lamborghini Formula 1) and TU (GE Nuovo Pignone). What benefits could you take from your DC time at VKI for your professional career? “For sure the very wide and deep range of knowledge of fluid dynamics which allowed me to move easily from aerospace, to racing cars and turbomachinery. I think this is the main benefit for a DC student. Not the only one but, in my opinion, the most important and useful for a professional career (at least for a technical career. To be a manager nowadays, unfortunately, you need different strengths than technical knowledge).” Is there anything special you could tell us about your Milano, March 1994. With Miguel Indurain and his team DC life at VKI and in Brussels in 1986/87? in the Agusta Wind Tunnel in Milano testing the material “I have many stories but in the most of them we were for the “One Hour Record” together and they do not represent anything new for you. I remember Saint Eloi, when I was the goal keeper in the team which won the soccer competition, and I remember a concert by the famous folk singer Joan Baez in Brussels and many others. I also remember my new bicycle because someone took it and I never saw it again.” Are you still in contact with your colleagues of DC? “Yes, but (it’s my fault) not so much as I’d like. You are, for sure, the strongest contact that I have. I am still in contact with the Italian connection (Nicola Paone, Maurizio Giorgioni and Pierpaolo Puddu) but we meet rarely.” Did you return to VKI to attend or contribute to a Lecture Series or did you have any collaboration with VKI? “I attended a couple of Lecture Series and I went to VKI for the 50 years celebration in 2006.” . . . What were the most exotic types of fluid dynam- At VKI, 1986. Taking pictures of the movement of the ics problems you had to solve in your professional life de-icing fluid at “TWT-1” (as Marco renamed the CWT-1). until today?

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“Uhm. . . ‘exotic’ I do not know. I’d say the most ‘excit- Professor Smolderen’s Aircraft Models ing’. Between 1994 and 1996 I was very active as time- trial bicycle designer for the Italian Cicli Pinarello (and I still am but with much less fun, primarily due to some big changes in the technical rules which do not allow any- more very streamlined frames). I had a couple of very good opportunities: ﬁrst to design the bicycle for the Spaniard Miguel Indurain, who set the One Hour Speed Record in Bordeaux in 1994 and, second, to design the bicycle for the Italian Andrea Collinelli who won the Gold Medal in by MARIO CARBONARO Atlanta in 1996. I was also in contact with many other DC 1968, VKI HONORARY PROFESSOR important athletes but I have realized later that it was not FORMER VKIDIRECTOR aerodynamics (as I thought) to allow them to go so fast (you know what I mean). When you have tasted (even rofessor Jean Smolderen was Director of the von for a short time) the excitement of competition (as it hap- Karman Institute from 1970 to 1976, as in that pened to me in Formula 1) this is hard to forget and I tried year he left the VKI to take a higher tenure posi- to continue with bicycles to smell the same atmosphere.” P tion at the University of Liège, where he had also been lecturing before. His photograph, shown below, is dis- played in the VKI canteen, together with those of the other former directors.

Los Angeles USA, October 1988 Discussing about some ﬂow viz in water tunnel.

All early attendees of the VKI DC certainly remember well Professor Smolderen. One of them, Geirr Saetvedt (VKI DC 1964-65) from Norway, sent to VKI a picture of Professor Smolderen, while lecturing on electronics in our conference room.

Marco today

Finally – please tell us something about your hobbies and sport activities? “Hobbies, nice word! But we have only 24 hours per day. However, I manage to practice regularly cyclism (at a very low level, 50-60 km three to four times a week) and, recently, I met some old friends of motorsport who asked me to write some short technical articles for a magazine. It was really amazing for me to discover that I was still ca- pable of writing something other than a technical report (and in Italian, which appears even more strange to me).” Professor Smolderen lecturing in 1964

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I met Professor Smolderen in 1967, when I arrived about the future of these aircraft, as her office was to at the VKI to follow the Diploma Course, highly recom- be fully refurbished and repainted after her departure mended to me by my Professor at Polytechnic of Torino, (it has now been attributed to Professor Herman Decon- Giuseppe Gabrielli, designer of a number of Fiat war- inck, Dean of Faculty). Therefore, in collaboration with planes, and a good friend of Theodore von Kármán. Pro- Claus Sieverding, I designed a showcase to properly dis- fessor Smolderen had his office in the room where the play these aircraft. The showcase, a locked UV-resistant VKI secretaries are presently located since 1970, and he plexiglass box with a 1.5×1.8 m base, has been installed had in that office a wonderful collection of models of air- along the staircase of the administrative building, just craft of the First and Second World Wars. He had assem- above the reception, and is therefore visible to all per- bled these models himself, very carefully painting them sonnel, students and visitors. in the original colors, including all decals, national sym- The display starts historically with the Wright bols, squadron’s name and all other distinctive features. brother’s prototype, followed by a biplane and a triplane of WWI (the 1915 German Empire Eindecker and the 1917 British Sopwith Tripehound), then by five inter- war fighters and bombers, all put into operation around 1937 (the RAF Gloster Gladiator, still a biplane; the US Army Corps Seversky P-35 and the RAF Hawker Fury, both already with the cantilever wing structure char- acteristic of modern aircraft; the Junkers JU-87 Stuka, the famous and terrifying vertical dive bomber; and the Focke Wulf FW200 Condor, an airliner converted to a reconnaissance aircraft and bomber).

Smolderen’s model of the Wright brother’s ﬂyer

In 1970 Professor Smolderen moved into the former office of Director Bob Dietz, who had left the VKI to return to the US, in Tennessee, to his organization, the AEDC, and the aircraft models were put in cardboard boxes and stored in the VKI cellar. Professor Smolderen’s office was later assigned to Stella Sauvan, newly hired in 1977 as Assistant to the new Director, Jean J. Ginoux, and Secretary of the VKI Board. It is Stella Sauvan who saved these aircraft models. Indeed, at the occasion of a cellar clean-up, these models were about to be thrown out, and she decided instead of taking them in her new office. Twenty of Smolderen’s aircraft models in their display The display is continued by twelve WWII aircraft: the US Navy Vought Kingfisher, a catapult-launched observation floatplane; two models of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, with the colours of the “Flying Tigers”, the US squadron operating for the Nationalist Republic of China – presently Taiwan; two Japanese warplanes of the Im- perial Navy Air Service, the Aichi D3A dive bomber and the legendary Mitsubishi “Zero” fighter, used first as an efficient carrier-based fighter but later outper- formed by newer fighters and then used by the Japanese kamikazes towards the end of the war; the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (the airplane with which Antoine de Smolderen’s model of the P-51 Mustang Saint-Exupéry, the famous French pilot and writer, dis- appeared in the Mediterranean sea in 1944); the North And Smolderen’s beautiful aircraft models remained American P-51 Mustang and the Republic P-47 Thun- in Stella’s office until her retirement in 2012, attracting derbolt, two legendary and outstanding US fighters; the the admiration of visitors. However, Stella and I feared US Navy Grumman F6F “Hellcat”, in the configuration

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 8 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association with folded wings typical of boarded carrier fighters; in von Kármán’s being designated as primary consultant and three bombers: the German Luftwaffe Heinkel He to the Army Air Force on scientific matters in October 177 “Greif”, the RAF De Havilland “Mosquito” and the of the same year. In November, Arnold provided in a Avro Lancaster B1. letter to von Kármán official instructions for the “AAF Stella Sauvan, who kept contact with Smolderen’s Consulting Board for Future Research” (AAFCBFR), offi- daughter, Fanchon, has sent her pictures of the display of cially formed as the “Army Air Force Science Advisory aircraft to be shown to Prof. Smolderen. He is presently Group” - or simply SAG for short - on December 1st. living in France, in a retirement home close to the house Arnold, a West Point graduate who excelled in math of his daughter, who tells us that her father was very and science, was a keen observer of aeronautics, ever much pleased with the initiative and greatly appreciated since his first sight of an airplane in flight in Paris - it. flown by none other than Louis Blèriot - led to his be- coming one of America’s first 24 rated military aviators in 1909 and a long military career closely tied to aeronautical research, pilot training and combat operations. He set several altitude records in 1911 and 1912, was “Where We Stand” Theodore von the first U.S. pilot to carry mail, and he is credited as Kármán’s Report on German the first pilot to fly over the U.S. Capitol and the first to carry a United States Congressman as a passenger. Aeronautical Research in 1945 Unsurprisingly, Arnold and von Kármán enjoyed a close and mutually-beneficial relationship for many years due to their common interest in advancing the aeronautical sciences.

by KENT P. MISEGADES VKI DC 1980

In my last article (Theodore von Kármán’s early contributions to rocketry), I described how a group of Caltech students called the ‘Suicide Squad’, perform- ing basic research on rocketry in the early 1940s under Theodore von Kármán, led to the creation of one of the world’s foremost producers of rocket motors, Aero- jet, and to the establishment of the Jet Propulsion Lab- oratory. In this article we’ll learn about von Kármán’s secret mission at the end of WWII to ascertain the key areas of aeronautical research in Germany. In August, 1944, the war in Europe and the Pacific Hap Arnold and Theodore von Kármán, December 1945, was at a crescendo. In that month, Allied forces liberated note von Kármán’s hearing aid Paris, the Red Army reached the East Prussian Border, U.S. General George Patton crossed the Marne river and The full text of Arnold’s letter to von Kármán can the south Pacific island of Guam fell to U.S. forces. Al- be read in the opening pages of “Toward New Horizons though many costly battles lay still ahead before the war - a Report to General of the Army H.H.Arnold Submit- ended in Europe in May of the following year, prepara- ted on behalf of the A.A.F. Scientific Advisory Group by tions were already being laid to learn as much as possi- Theodore von Kármán”, published in December, 1945 ble from Germany’s aeronautical labs and industry once and easily found on the Internet. In his letter, Arnold American scientists could travel safely east of the Rhine. implores SAG members to look beyond their current ef- And the Americans weren’t alone - British, French and forts related to ending the war: Soviet plans were already being made, despite war rag- ing on their own soil and in the skies above. Except perhaps to review current techniques On August 6-7, 1944, Theodore von Kármán met and research trends, I am asking you and with Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Commanding General of your associates to divorce yourselves from the the US Army Air Forces, at New York’s LaGuardia Air- present war in order to investigate all the pos- port. Arnold requested that von Kármán lead the Army sibilities and desirabilities for postwar and fu- Air Force Long Range Development Program, resulting ture war’s development as respects the AAF.

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Upon completion of your studies, please then led to a previously unknown German re- give as a report or guide for recommended fu- search site, the Hermann Göring Aeronauti- ture AAF research and development programs. cal Research Center at Völkenrode. Never de- tected by American intelligence, it was a well- von Kármán quickly assembled a group of scien- camouflaged facility of Göringesque propor- tists involved in virtually every aspect of aeronauti- tions on the outskirts of Braunschweig. Al- cal science, including aerodynamics and aircraft design, most 80 buildings, including seven wind tun- propulsion and fuels, rocketry, materials and structures, nels, were hidden under a carpet of earth from guided missiles and pilotless aircraft, supersonic flight, which trees grew, blending the facility into the homing missiles, heat and television guided missiles, surrounding forest. (Some wind tunnel parts radars, explosives, terminal ballistics, communications, captured in Germany are still in use in the aviation medicine and psychology. Readers of “Towards United States today.) New Horizons” will recognize some of the individuals responsible for each of these topics, leading authorities Meier’s book also documents the many post-war in each field during the 1940s, some of whom were also developments that evolved from German wartime re- involved in the formation of what was to become the search, critical details of which were rescued by SAG von Karman Institute. SAG’s reports to General Arnold members in the chaotic weeks immediately preceding and the AAF were contained in several major publica- and following the end of hostilities. German scientists tions, including two key introductory sections written were ‘encouraged’ by American, British, and French by von Kármán and entitled “Science, The Key To Air occupying forces to spend some months abroad for Supremacy” and “Where We Stand”. detailed briefings on their work (the Russians simply To gain an understanding of the state of technol- forced German scientists and their families captured in ogy that SAG members found in Germany in 1945, I their zone into work camps from which many never re- urge you to find these reports on the Internet and read turned alive). In the case of the U.S., this effort was them. Nearly seven decades later, it is remarkable to see called “Operation Paperclip”, which sent dozens of lead- the wide range of work that was being performed, es- ing German scientists such as Alexander Lippisch, inven- pecially in Germany, despite withering aerial bombard- tor of the delta wing, and rocketry expert Wernher von ments, dwindling supplies of materials, fuels and man- Braun to U.S. labs such as Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. power. Just one topic alone, research on swept wings (which SAG members referred to as “arrow wings” in their reports, a literal translation of the German “Pfeil- flügel”), is the focus of VKI alumnus’ Hans-Ulrich Meier’s impressive 470+ page book on the subject “German De- velopment of the Swept Wing: 1935-1945”. As a result of his decades of past work at leading Hungarian, Aus- trian and German labs, von Kármán quickly established contact with his former peers in defeated countries and directed members of his team to centers of their research. Sometimes they literally stumbled across work The BMW 003 jet engine served as the basis for the ATAR unknown outside of Germany, as described in an article 101, the first product of what was to become today’s entitled “Operation Paperclip” authored by former direc- SNECMA tor of the U.S. National Air and Space Museum Walter J. Boyne: Many of these German scientists chose to remain with their families in the U.S. or other countries. One However, the most productive long-term dis- significant example was the BMW 003 jet engine devel- coveries were made by teams led by [AAF opment team of Hermann Ostrich. Despite attractive of- Colonel Donald L.] Putt and other members fers from both the Americans and the British, Ostrich ac- of the Scientific Advisory Group. These teams cepted a generous proposal from the French government swept through the well-known German re- to continue work on the 003 at a former Dornier facility search centers in Stuttgart (the Graf Zep- in the Bavarian town of Rickenbach (Lindau) on Lake pelin Research Establishment), Göttingen (the Constance, part of the French occupation zone. Called Aerodynamics Research Institute), and von “Atelier Technique Aéronautique Rickenbach” (ATAR), Kármán’s old stomping ground at Aachen. the group’s resulting ATAR 101 turbine became the basis There they met their peers, leading academics, for a long line of important jet engines from what would many of whom they knew personally and had later become known as the French company SNECMA, worked with before the war. Putt was as- one of the world’s largest producers today. Always think- tounded when, on April 13, 1945, he was ing ahead, von Kármán was opposed to Operation Pa-

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 10 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association perclip, fearing it would rob Germany and other coun- and tries to show “where we stand” with some tries of experts needed to reestablish industry and sci- indications as to “where we shall go”. ence for peaceful purposes as they toiled to recover from For future planning of research and develop- the devastation of war. ment, the following new aspects of aerial warfare have to be considered as fundamental re- alities:

1. that aircraft-manned or pilotless – will move with speeds far beyond the velocity of sound; 2. that due to improvements in aerodynamics, propulsion and electronic control, unmanned devices will transport means of destruction to targets at distances up to several thousand miles; 3. that small amounts of explosive materials will cause destruction over areas of several square miles; Three key members of SAG, L–R: Theodore von Kármán (Chairman), Brigadier General Donald L. Putt (Director 4. that defense against present-day aircraft of USAF Research and Development in the Office of the will be perfected by target seeking mis- Deputy Chief of Staff, Material, in Headquarters, AAF), siles; and Dr. Albert E. Lombard, Jr. (head of the Research 5. that only aircraft or missiles moving at Division under General Putt, and later to become head of extreme speeds will be able to penetrate McDonnell Aircraft Company research laboratories) enemy territory protected by such de- fenses; An excellent summary of SAG findings is found in 6. that a perfect communication system be- the “Technical Intelligence Supplement” authored by tween fighter command and each indi- H.S. Tsien (a member of Aerojet’s Suicide Squad), H.L. vidual aircraft will be established; Dryden, F.L. Wattendorf, USAF Lt.Col. F.W. Williams, F. Zwicky and W.H.Pickering (whose WWI pilotless bomb 7. that location and observation of targets, work was supported by a younger Hap Arnold). This vol- take-off, navigation and landing of air- ume, just one of the reports SAG delivered to the AAF, craft, and communication will be inde- includes numerous drawings and pictures and could pendent of visibility and weather; serve as a good reference book today for many areas 8. that fully equipped airborne task forces of aeronautical research. von Kármán’s introductory re- will be enabled to strike at far distant port entitled “Where We Stand” outlines both the status points and will be supplied by air. of research in 1945 and makes eight bold predictions for the future (listed below). Readers can easily find online VKI alumni are in the best position to determine a scanned copy of the original report as well its con- to what extent each of these predictions have been tents in an online book from USAF Maj. Dik Daso en- achieved since they were first made sixty-seven years titled “Architects of American Air Supremacy: General ago. From my perspective, all have been achieved, with Hap Arnold and Dr. Theodore von Kármán - Conceptu- the possible exception of the fifth. Stealth technologies alizing the Future Air Force”. – unforeseen in 1945 – have made the necessity for supersonic speeds less relevant. Ironically, tailless swept Introduction flying-wing type aircraft, developed in Germany primarily to save weight and lower drag, are preferred shapes The present war started on both sides with for the most advanced manned and unmanned stealth “conventional” weapons and equipment; “con- aircraft today, best illustrated by the Northrop B-2. ventional” because their principles of action, Theodore von Kármán and his fellow SAG members design, and performance were fundamentally would have been impressed by the countless contribu- known to the enemy. During the war both tions that the VKI and its graduates have made to real- sides produced equipment and weapons of as- izing these predictions. They would have been equally tonishing effects which will certainly change pleased, I am convinced, that the same VKI-influenced the whole picture of future aerial warfare. research that contributed to the West’s air supremacy This report is concerned with the main fields during the Cold War is now in widespread use for peace- in which significant advances have been made ful purposes in aeronautics and in many other fields.

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quality metallic and ceramic nanoparticles. This new activity goes hand-in-hand with the growing interest of the industry in nanostructures, in particular in the metal industry (i.e., improvement of the mechanical properties of a metal-based material by the addition of ceramic nanoparticles. . . ), in the space and military industry (i.e., increase of the combustion enthalpy of solid pro- pellants by the addition of metallic nanoparticles. . . ), in the health care industry (i.e., use of nanoparticles for medical diagnostics as tracers. . . ). The research activities conducted at the von Kar- man Institute since 2008 are supported by the Wal- loon Region (Belgium) in the framework of the Nan- oTech Project. This support from the Walloon Region falls within its strategic development for the nanotech- nologies industry. The key objectives for the project are: the development of nanoparticle production facilities, the development of nanoparticle applications in collaboration with active industries in the field and the production and sales of high added-value nanoparticles. The project involves 11 partners (universities, research centers and industries) for a total budget exceeding e10M. The project coordination is ensured by the company Nanopôle S.A.. Messerschmitt P 1101 (above) and Bell X-5 (below): The work packages assigned to the von Karman In- Discovered by SAG members in Oberammergau, Germany stitute within the NanoTech project consist on one side at the end of the war, the P 1101, an 80% completed in research on the production of nanoparticles and on prototype of a single engine jet fighter from Messerschmitt the other side in the application of the research outputs with ground-adjustable swept wings, was shipped first to to the design, construction and assembly of industrial Wright Field then to Bell’s Buffalo, NY facility where it prototypes for the production of nanoparticles. A dedi- served as a basis for the X-5, the world’s first aircraft with cated working group has been set in place in order to in-flight variable sweep wings. achieve these tasks. It includes professors, research en- In my next installment on the fascinating life and gineers, industrial engineers and PhD candidates from times of Theodore von Kármán, we’ll look at his most both EA and AR departments. important contributions to science in areas other than Today, there are several methods for creating fluid dynamics. nanoparticles such as colloidal synthesis, mechanical attrition, sol-gel process, laser ablation, plasma process. . . The method investigated in the framework of the NanoTech project is based on a radio-frequency (RF) thermal plasma process. It consists of evaporat- The NanoTech Project: a New ing the precursor materials inside a plasma torch and Research Activity at the von Karman then quenching and condensing the species vapors into a chamber to obtain the desired nanoparticles. The ma- Institute jor advantages of this process are the high purity and thermal stability of the produced nanoparticles and the high flexibility in the selection of the precursors. Modeling plays an important role in the development of the complex synthesis process providing an in- sight into the phenomena involved and helping to iden- tify the right operating conditions to employ. In the framework of the Nanotech Project, the von Karman by JEAN-BAPTISTE GOURIET Institute has developed in collaboration with the Sher- RESEARCH ENGINEER,EA AND ARDEPARTMENTS brook University (Quebec, CA), a complete model which describes the plasma flow and the precursors’ evapora- research group has been created recently at the tion by means of the fluid dynamic equations of con- von Karman Institute in the field of nanotechnol- tinuity, momentum and energy coupled with the elec- Aogy and more precisely in the synthesis of high- tromagnetic field equations and the formation of the

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 12 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association nanoparticles using the aerosol dynamic equations in- in situ physical quantities such as the temperature of cluding nucleation, condensational growth, Brownian the plasma flow or the size and concentration of the coagulation, thermophoresis and aggregation. The com- nanoparticles. The characterization of the plasma in plete model has been successfully implemented using terms of temperature is performed using H-atomic lines the open source code OpenFOAM. observed in the visible spectral range. This technique has been developed and set-up in the VKI mini-torch facility before being transferred and validated successfully on the nanoparticle production equipment. The technique selected for the characterization of the nanoparticle size distribution and concentration is the Multi-Wave Length Extinction Technique (MWLE). This technique has the advantage of employing a simple and low cost experimental set-up but requires a complex inversion al- gorithm. Today, the technique has been validated with nano-size DEHS (Di-Ethyl-Hexyl-Sebecat) droplets and with nano-size KCl particles in the VKI optical laboratory. The practical application of the research conducted at the VKI leads to the design of two industrial prototypes to be assembled at SIRRIS Wallonia (Liège, Bel- Plasma reactor modeling gium). The first prototype is dedicated to the production of metallic nanoparticles. It is presently under qualifica- tion tests. A separate building (L×W×H: 15×6×7 m) has been constructed to host the production equipment with all the side functions required for its operation. Due to the high reactivity of the final product, the production equipment is located in a confined room under an inert atmosphere (Ar). Moreover, it operates in full automatic mode with more than 70 sensors (temperature, pressure, flow rate, oxygen sensor.. . ) and 30 automatic valves connected to an industrial Programmable Logic Controller. The prototype is equipped with the typical elements of a nanoparticle production unit by plasma RF such as a powder feeder to inject the solid precursors, a plasma torch of 30 mm diameter with its 15 kW RF generator (freq. 13.56 MHz) to vaporize the solid precursors, the synthesis chamber to cool down the vapors and generate the nanoparticles, the cyclonic separator to VKI glovebox with TG/DSC instrument remove the micro-size particles, the production filter to A wide usage of metallic nanoparticles required re- capture and collect the produced nanoparticles and an search on methods for their conditioning. Indeed, when exhaust with a vacuum pump. The conditioning of the dealing with highly reactive materials, it is essential to metallic nanoparticles by surface oxidation is performed condition the particles and to bring them to an inert in the confined room just after being produced. state which allows a safe manipulation. The von Kar- The second prototype is dedicated to the production man Institute has initiated a research work on this field of Silicon Carbide nanoparticles (SiC). This prototype and is currently developing and testing a controlled pas- is presently under assembly. Its design is very similar sivation process based on the oxidation reaction of the to the one for metallic nanoparticles but with a larger metallic nanoparticles. This development is based both production capacity. In order to support this capacity, on theoretical and experimental investigations. A dedi- the diameter of the torch has been increased from 30 to cated laboratory has been built at the VKI to perform the 50 mm and is powered with an RF generator of 30 kW corresponding tests in safe and controlled conditions. In (freq. 13.56 MHz). One of the major obstacles in the particular, the laboratory is equipped with a Thermo- production of SiC nanoparticles is the very high temper- Gravimetric analyzer (TG) and Differential Scanning atures which are needed to vaporize those elements. To Calorimeter (DSC) installed into a glove-box working complicate matters further, the equilibrium vapors show under an inert and controlled atmosphere (Ar). an almost complete absence of diatomic SiC and con- The VKI also performs specific research work on ad- sist mainly of Atomic Si with SiC2 and Si2C being the vanced optical tools in order to assess in real-time and major molecular species. The kinetics of the chemical

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 13 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association reactions during the quenching process are therefore of took many graduate courses at MIT related to Fluid Me- prior importance for the formation of high purity SiC chanics, and Thermodynamics. At Harvard, I took some nanoparticles. business seminars taught by Harvard Business School Fac- ulty for scientists. My PhD thesis was on Study of Turbu- lent Boundary Layer Structure, for which I developed con- ditional sampling techniques for measuring bursting phe- nomenon using Laser Doppler and Hot Wire Anemometry. This work led me to my first job at Dantec Measurement Technology, a company which manufactures and sells fluid mechanics measurement systems. I started as Systems En- gineer, and then worked as Department Manager for Soft- ware Development, and for many years as Vice-President and Corporate Business Development Manager. On my fif- teenth anniversary at Dantec, I received a congratulations letter from the CEO, to which I replied that I have decided to resign, and wanted to try doing new things in newer Plasma plume at the exit of the torch fields.

Prototype for metallic nanoparticles production

Both prototypes for the production of metallic and ceramic nanoparticles should be operational in the mid- dle of 2013. Their future exploitation will be done by the company Nanopôle S.A.. The developed expertise and tools are unique and some time is presently invested to look for new funds allowing a continuation of this nan- otechnology activity at VKI. Engin receiving his diploma in 1981.

“Soon after my resignation in 2000, I accepted a position at OZ Optics in Canada, as VP for its Scientific Fiber Where Are They and What Are They Optics Division. I commuted to Ottawa from New Jersey, Doing? learning about the very exciting field of fiber optics. Going from a very niche market in fluid mechanics, it seemed like there was unlimited market demand for fiber optics, with Engin Arik (DC 1981) many new companies forming, and investors pouring lots of money into them. Of course, this was a perfect setting for the big crash of the fiber optics market later that year, followed by the crash and correction in the entire technology sector. Although my company, especially my division was still doing well, I was intrigued by a phone call I received from a friend who was a Professor of Aeronautics at California Institute of Technology, who asked me if I would move to California to help manage and grow a Cal- Tech spin-off company that he started. I spent the next two years growing this start-up company’s business in the areas of micro-sensors for fluid mechanics measurements. It was enjoyable to have a Caltech ID, attend weekly semi- Engin Arik nars, and interact with faculty and students there. One of the Board Members of this company told me that a larger After graduating from VKI, I went back to Cambridge, research company named POC (Physical Optics Corpora- MA and completed my Master’s (1982), and PhD tion) (www.poc.com) was looking for a General Manager “(1986) in Engineering at Harvard University. I also for their Light Shaping Displays Division, and he recom-

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 14 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association mended me for the job. After a brief interview with the “Although I am not involved with ﬂuid mechanics any- CEO, I joined POC in 2004 as GM. more, I have always valued the year I spent at VKI as being very educational, fun, and formative for my personal and professional growth. I have stayed in touch with many of my classmates over time, and have had an opportunity to work together with some. I can be reached at [email protected].”

Hervé Consigny (DC 1975)

Leyla and Engin in Dubrovnik

“On my first anniversary at POC, I co-founded a company called Luminit (www.luminitco.com) as a spin-off company from POC. I have been the President and CEO of Luminit during the last eight years, where we develop, manufacture, and sell “holographic light shaping Hervé Consigny diffusers”, used in LED lighting, LCD TV’s, PDA’s, back- lights, all forms of architectural, and entertainment light- ervé has a very long standing relation with VKI. ing, automotive brake-lights, etc. to shape, homogenize, After joining the VKI DC course in 1975 in the and conserve light. You can find our diffusers incorpo- HTurbomachinery Department followed by a doc- rated into many large company products such LED down toral thesis entitled “Etude expérimentale et théorique lights and wash lights, aircraft reading lights, automotive des échanges thermiques convectifs à la surface des brake lights, copiers, cameras, and many different kinds aubes de turbines” presented in 1980 at the Université of high tech instrumentation and lighting products. Two Libre de Bruxelles, Hervé returned to VKI in 1995 as a years ago, we were ranked among the fastest growing com- member of the board of Directors and serves the best in- panies in the US by Inc Magazine, and in California by Los terests of VKI since 2005 as Vice-President of the board. Angeles Business Journal. Last year, we received an award from Brookings Institute and Los Angeles Mayor, naming Luminit “Export Champion of LA”, and recognizing Lu- minit’s business model as exemplary for being a growing and profitable company in a down economy. We have been growing steadily since we started, and thankfully did not have to raise any funds.

Hervé receiving his diploma in 1975.

After leaving VKI, Hervé joined the ON- ERA/Chatillon where he started to work on unsteady aerodynamics (and more particularly on experimental and CFD aspects of oscillating ﬂaps and spoilers). In 1984 he moved to ONERA/Meudon and became Head of a Research Group in charge of developing new measurement and testing techniques for a set of research Luminit’s diffusers illuminate landmarks across the wind tunnels covering a Mach number range from 0.3 world. – Courtesy of Syncrolite to 10 and was promoted in 1989 Head of Division for

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Experimental Aerodynamics. His career turned then to- Patrick Vankeirsbilck (DC 1988, PhD 1993) wards international collaboration. In 1994 he joined the International Affairs Directorate with the particular task to foster the bilateral cooperation between ONERA and DLR and to develop with four other European Research Establishments (CIRA, DRA, INTA, NLR) the association EREA (Association des Etablissement de Recherche Eu- ropéens en Aéronautique). In 1996 he was nominated Deputy Director and in 1999 Director for International Affairs. As such he was responsible to elaborate for the President of ONERA the international politics of ON- ERA, to represent him in international organizations and ensure the follow-up of all international activities. Since 2008 he works as Adjoint Director at the “Direc- Patrick Vankeirsbilck tion Technique Générale” which is in charge of the op- fter finishing the Diploma Course in 1988, Patrick erational management of the 16 scientific departments Vankeirsbilck, a Belgian who grew up in Bruges, of ONERA. Hervé will serve as the GARTEUR (Group Ajoined the VKI PhD Program benefiting from a for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) Belgian fellowship. Prof. Herman Deconinck supervised Chairman for 2013 and 2014. his research that investigated the use of generalized polygonal adaptive meshes for higher-order finite vol- ume schemes with application to hyperbolic conserva- tion laws, a pure CFD research that led to a PhD degree at the KU Leuven in 1993. It is to be noted here that the numerical codes during the research were entirely written in C++ which was completely unusual in those days. In that same year, Patrick, in the meanwhile well known as ‘VKB’ at the VKI, married Josefa Martinez, a Spanish artist painter living in Brussels and who had two daughters. This made Patrick accept to work as post-doctoral researcher on a European project at the VKI till 1995. Hervé in the cockpit of an ultralight plane. This project was initiated by Prof. Herman Deconink Professional activities need to be balanced by per- and his brother Prof. Johan Deconinck (VUB) and aimed sonal hobbies and Hervé has a number of these. In addi- at solving electrochemical problems using unstructured tion to gardening and walking, Hervé still very much en- meshes, still programming in C++. During this period joys three-dimensional Fluid Dynamics with diving (in- from 1993 till 1995, Patrick was also in charge of se- structor) and flying small aircraft. lecting, uniforming and supporting scientific software at the VKI computer center. In 1995, Patrick joined the partner research group at the VUB while continuing the European project on numerical electrochemistry. In 1997, he founded together with his VUB colleagues the spin-off company ElSyCa with the objective to commercialize the electrochemical simulation software that had reached a sufficient level of maturity. He joined the company in 1998 as an em- ployee in charge of the mesh generation tools which were all developed in C++. In 2002, he left ElSyCa due to a difference in strategic views. As an experienced C++ programmer and object-oriented software architect, he was employed in the ICT department of the university hospital of the VUB (UZ Brussel). He was in charge of setting up the architectural foundation of a JAVA Enterprise application that is integrating most of the aspects of hospital operations: patient administration, pharmaceutical orders, patient appointments, medical imaging, etc. During all these years, even before entering the VKI Hervé preparing for a diving expedition. Diploma Course, Patrick had always been very active as

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 16 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association a musician; ﬁrst as a ﬂute player – he played together knows some other engineers with a PhD who also de- with üstem Aslan at the VKI Diploma Ceremony in 1988 cided to devote themselves entirely to writing and per- – and later as a bandoneon player. Between 1995 and forming music and became director of a music school in 2009, he toured throughout Europe playing concerts to- Brussels. In Antwerp, he is sometimes rehearsing with a gether with his master Alfredo Marcucci during week- young civil engineer who is playing keyboards and who ends and days off. After the master died, Patrick took a is also searching to combine a career as a musician and position as a bandoneon teacher at an evening school in as an engineer. Brussels as of September 2009 while continuing a concert career as one of the very rare bandoneon players in Belgium. He combined this with his ongoing job as an ICT-architect in the UZ Brussel hospital.

Patrick receiving his diploma in 1988.

Patrick’s musical activities started to take too much importance and he had to make a serious choice as the hospital wouldn’t allow him to work part-time. He fi- Patrick playing his bandoneon – © Copyright Luc van nally decided to quit his ICT-job in 2010. Patrick com- Uytvanck ments on this choice: “I continuously feel a strong pas- Patrick’s career is indeed very different from the av- sion for both engineering and the art of music and I guess erage VKI Diploma graduate. Nonetheless, he keeps in I shall always be balancing between both. I believe work- touch with several of his co-students such as Kevin Rud- ing part-time as an engineer and as a musician would be dick, Alessandro Gianni, Isabelle Dor, Giuseppe Giber- ideal for me. However, part-time engineering jobs are ex- tini, and Antonella Abba. Recently, they had a large re- tremely rare and, despite this, I keep on looking for such union in Italy. Patrick confirms one truth: you never lose opportunities. To me ‘part-time’ does not mean ‘half work’ that VKI spirit, wherever your career may lead you. but excellent work done in another and obviously, slower, manner. And, many may not know this: I almost failed the entrance exam in July 1982 at the Engineering Fac- ulty of the Ghent University because of too many musical activities. My point at that time was: “If I fail again in Last-Minute Announcement – September, I go to the Music Conservatory” but I passed... Academic Day to Commemorate “Maybe I am indeed an “Oiseau rare” and, at the same time, I guess we are approaching the end of an era where Theodore von Kármán all careers were rather linear while a new one is coming where more and more highly skilled people will ap- The VKI will organize an Academic Day to commem- pear who look for more independent, non-linear careers in orate the 50th anniversary of the death of Theodore von which they try to match personal development, interests Kármán. The Academic Day will be held on the after- and passions with economic, cultural and social responsi- noon of May 7, 2013, at the Palais des Academies in bility and opportunities. Time will show...” the center of Brussels. Speakers representing the Bel- Alumni who may be searching for Patrick Vankeirs- gian government, NATO, and from European and Amer- bilck on internet search engines will find much more ican research establishments will recount von Kármán’s on Patrick’s musical activities than on his engineering life and accomplishments as well as present the status of projects. This is not a coincidence: the internet is by far scientific research in areas to which he made major con- the strongest promotional tool for artists. Patrick’s ICT tributions. The detailed agenda with names of speakers skills help him a lot in this respect. Patrick is not the and titles of their contributions will appear on the VKI only engineer who has made a drastic career switch. He website (www.vki.ac.be) in the near future.

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 17 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Last-Minute Announcement – Table of Contents of the ﬁrst 10 VKI Alumni Meeting in Lappeenranta, VKI-AA Newsletters Finland 1. INTERVIEWSAND PORTRAITS (WHERE ARE THEY AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING?) IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

NAME DC/RM ISSUE Andrew, P. 1988 8 Arnet, C. K. 1980 9 Bieler, H. 1983 8 Calta, C. 1986 7 Carbonaro, M. 1967 2 Consigny, H. 1976 10 Couston, M. 1972 1 Dolling, D. 1974 3, 8 by GERARD BOIS, DC 1972 Dowgwillo, R. 1973 8 CHAIRMANOFTHE EUROPEAN TURBOMACHINERY Drtina, P. 1986 9 Arik, E. 1981 10 ONFERENCE C Giachi, M. 1987 10 Griepentrog, H. 1967 4 The bi-annual European Turbomachinery Confer- Gross, T. 1966 4 Martinozzi, G. 1967 6 ence takes place this year in the week of April 15-19 McCroskey, J. 1963 3 in Lappeenranta situated half-way between Helsinki and Müller, B. 1981 9 Saint Petersburg. Lappeenranta has 72,000 inhabitants Muylaert, J. 1980 2 and is renowned as a popular international tourist des- Ottolia, D. 1999 9 Sanchez, C. 2012 9 tination and University City. Sauvan, S. — 6 Tracy, R. 1960 10 v. Duitshuizen, H. 1963 5 Vankeirsbilck, P. 1988 10 Vetrano, M. R. 2002 8 Zawacki, T. 2010 9 2. CURRENT ACTIVITIESINTHE VKI TOPIC ISSUE 4 new faculty members 2 15 years of Aeroacoustic Research 3 Air Transport Partnership with Russia 3 Collaboration MYRRHA / Nuclear Research 4 Educational Activities & Tools for Aeronautics 5 Everlasting Search for Ofﬁce Space 3 From DC to Research Master (MaM) 4 Nano-Technology Research 10 Recent News 3 QB 50 Project 7 Plasmatron Facility 3 Showcase: Prof. Smolderen’s airplanes 10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel to Turbine Cascade 4 Lappeenranta is situated on the banks of Finland’s biggest VKI Doctoral Program 1 lake, Lake Saimaa. Its harbour is popular with boaters. – VKI Graduation Day 2009 1 VKI 55th Anniversary Open Days 7 photo by: Vesa Mikkonen VKI Research Master Ceremony 2011 6 VKI Research Master Ceremony 2012 9 VKI Tennis Club 5 3. VKI ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IN GENERAL This conference always attracts a large number of VKI Alumni. This is of course a unique occasion to ITEM ISSUE meet again old friends, exchange professional experi- President’s Word 1 Kick-Off Belgian Chapter 1 ences and refresh old memories. The best occasion for VKI-AA Lapel Pins 6 a convivial get-to-gather is the traditional VKI Alumni VKI Alumni Day 2011 7 M. Greenblatt’s speech to the alumni on the occasion of dinner which is typically attended by 20-30 Alumni. 7 the VKI Alumni Day 2011 More detailed information about the dinner will be pub- VKI-AA Research Travel Grants 10 lished in March on the VKI-Alumni website www.vki- alumni.org. Expected average temperatures at the time 4. COMPANIES FOUNDEDBY VKIALUMNI of the conference: between 0◦C minimum and 8◦C maximum. Foresee an additional day for visiting St. Peters- COMPANY BUSINESS LOCATED AT FOUNDER DC/RM ISSUE Pula, Cagliari, KARAlit CFD Mulas, M. 1989 4 burg! Sardinia, Italy

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 18 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

5. REVIEWOF BOOKS WRITTENBY VKIALUMNI 8. PRIZES/AWARDS WONBY CURRENT VKIRE- SEARCHERSAND VKIALUMNI TITLE AUTHOR DC/RM ISSUE To see without being seen – (A History of Reconnaissance and Herpfer, E. 1963 5 PRIZE/AWARD NAME DC/RM/PhD ISSUE Surveillance Systems) Brouckaert, J.-F. 1995 German Development of the Mersinligil, M. 2007 Meier, H.-U. 1966 6 Swept Wing – 1939-1945 Pau, M. 2006 Aeronautical Travel Guide to the Misegades, K. 1980 7 Paniagua, G. 1997 Lake Constance Region Solano, J. P. 2004 IGTI Best Paper Awards Verstraete, T. 2008, PhD 6. TECHNICAL ARTICLES/HISTORY to VKI Researchers at the Amaral, S. 2007 1 ASME Turbo Expo 2008 Van den 1969 TITLE AUTHOR DC/RM ISSUE Berlin and. . . Braembussche, R. Burt Rutan’s Car Top Wind Tunnel Misegades, K. 1980 7 Arts, T. (2 Papers) 1979 T. von Kármán, Contribution to Misegades, K. 1980 8 . . . to a VKI alumnus Leonard, O. 1988 Rotorcraft Thomas, J. P. Liège Uni. T. von Kármán, Contribution to Misegades, K. 1980 9 Borguet, S. Liège Uni. Rocketry “Barsanti & Matteucci” T. von Kármán, about German Misegades, K. 1980 10 Aeronautical Research in 1945 Italian community of Professors of Energy Armellini, A. 2007 6 7. DINNERSAND REUNIONS Systems, Engines and Turbomachinery EREA Association of Eu- CONFERENCES /OCCASIONS PLACE YEAR ISSUE ETC8 – European Turbomachin- ropean Research Estab- Marinus, B. 2007 7 Graz/Austria 2009 1 ery Conference lishments in Aeronautics AIAA – Aerospace Sciences Meeting Orlando, FL/US 2009 1 AIAA – Aerospace Sciences Meeting Orlando, FL/US 2010 2 Glasgow, Scot- TE10 – ASME Turbo Expo 2010 3 land/UK AIAA – Aerospace Sciences Meeting Orlando, FL/US 2011 4 ETC9 – European Turbomachin- Istanbul/Turkey 2011 5 ery Conference EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, WI/US 2011 6 DC 1987 Reunion/ Hiking Tour Dolomites/Italy 2011 8 Belgian Alumni Barbecue Perwez/Belgium 2011 6 TE12 – ASME Turbo Expo Copenhagen/ 2012 8 Denmark Meersburg/ Small Hiking Tour 2012 8 Germany Dinner Leesburg, VA/US 2012 8

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 19 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected]