Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association VKI 60 Anniversary

Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association ISSUE 19, APRIL 2016 In This Issue:

From the Editors? ...... 1 Alumni dinner in San Diego...... 11

A year at VKI: 2014-2015 ...... 2 Interview with Peter Falatyn, DC 1987 ...... 12 A Network for Helping Recent VKI Graduates Supersonic Fighters and the Learjet – TvK in a new VKI-AA support action ...... 5 post-war Switzerland ...... 15 “. . . a small piece of VKI’s spirit has been ﬂowing through the cables of one of the biggest super- Interview with Gary Johnson, DC 1975 ...... 21 computers in the world.”...... 6 The VKI-AA 2016 Research Travel Grants ...... 24 Experiences as Visiting Professor at Chinese Uni- versities ...... 7 Celebration of VKI’s 60th Anniversary ...... 25

From the Editors? something you absolutely disliked in one of the previous newsletters? Do you rate VKI-AA newsletters as SPAM or are you looking forward to receiving the next issue? Do you miss a specific column in the newsletter? Do you save newsletters on your PC? Do you even print newsletters? Do you know that you can download any or all of the 19 newsletters on the VKI-AA website? When was the last time you visited the VKI-AA website? When did by HANS-PETER DICKMANN, DC 1987 you last visit the official VKI website? Did you like what AND EDITOR,EUROPE you saw or read? Are you acquainted with the current AND JOHN WENDT,FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI VKI-AA board member(s) of your chapter/country? Will AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA you take part in the 60th anniversary celebration at VKI in October? Was it stressful/tiring/boring to read a Let- hy is there a question mark at the end of the ti- ter from the Editors with all these questions? We look tle? Maybe some – or even many – of you know forward to your answers! Wthe novel “The interrogative Mood – A Novel?” by Padget Powell. It is a novel entirely written with questions inspiring the reader to think about the answers. It inspired us to do it the same way here. In case one or more of the following questions inspires you to contact th us with ideas, positive or negative criticism or contribu- VKI 60 Anniversary tions for future newsletters – we will be happy to be con- tacted: answers are welcome! In what order do you read the newsletter? Is there an order at all? What do you CELEBRATION ON think about the Letter from the Editors? Would you miss FRIDAY OCTOBER 14, 2016 it if we skip it in the future? Did you already find a “lost sheep” from your DC/RM program via an interview read Mark this date on your calendar in the newsletter? Would you give an interview in one of the future newsletters? Did you like a previous newslet- now! ter so much that you forwarded it to a classmate? Do you think it was worthwhile to register as a VKI-AA member SEE THE LAST PAGE FOR DETAILS because you receive the newsletter periodically? What is your favorite column in the newsletters? Was there Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

A year at VKI: 2014-2015 them received the PhD degree: Francesco Baldani (Royal Military Academy, Belgium and Université de Valenci- ennes, France), Stefano D’Angelo (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole Polytechnique, Belgium), Leandro Dan- tas de Santana (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Bel- gium), Lamberto D’Elle Elce (Université de Liège, Bel- gium), Jesús Garicano Mena (Université Libre de Brux- elles, Ecole Polytechnique, Belgium), Guillaume Grossir by CHRISTELLE DEBEER,COMMUNICATIONS,WEB & (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole Polytechnique, Bel- PUBLICATIONS, gium), Jorge Pinho (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole AND JEAN MUYLAERT,VKIDIRECTOR Polytechnique, Belgium) and Jérôme Sans (Université Catholique de Louvain, Ecole Polytechnique, Belgium). his contribution aims at presenting a brief overview Many PhD candidates are funded by prestigious PhD of the past academic year at the von Karman In- grants such as those provided by the Belgian agencies Tstitute. In 2014-2015, the number of participants FNRS-FRIA, FWO-IWT, the French CIFRE and the Euro- to the academic programmes, lecture series and sym- pean Union ERC and Marie-Curie programs. posia reached 823. The Research Master (former Diploma Course), PhD, Applied Research Orientation and post- The Applied Research Orientation programme at the doctoral programmes participation remained at the same post-graduate level was attended by 15 engineers for level as during the previous year, while the attendance to periods ranging from one to four months. Eight post- the short training program decreased slightly. The sym- doctoral researchers were enrolled in the Advanced posia and other similar events still constituted an attrac- Programme in Applied Research for a period of eight tive activity at VKI. months. Seven Research Associates and two Visiting Sci- This year was unfortunately marked by the demise entists have participated actively in funded research and on October 27, 2015 of Professor Jean-Pierre Contzen, training programmes for periods ranging from one to Chairman of the VKI Board of Directors since 2005. Dr. twelve months. 68 students from 39 universities in 9 Hervé Consigny from ONERA replaces him as acting countries attended the Short Training Programme. On chairman until the election of a new chairman. average, each student remained for 12 weeks. Nine Lec- To our great satisfaction Greece contributes again to ture Series (one NATO-STO LS included) were held at the international budget of the VKI funding system af- VKI with a total external attendance of 293 participants ter an interruption of 14 years. Romania also became a for an average of 33 attendees per course. new partner of the VKI academic programmes. As a result VKI welcomed students from both countries. In total Changes in the faculty 38 students attended the Research Master in Fluid Dy- namics (former Diploma Course). The 59th graduation The most important changes occurred in the Turbo- ceremony of this Research Master took place at the von machinery and Propulsion department. Prof. Guillermo Karman Institute on the 3rd of July 2015. The Theodore Paniagua, DC 1997, PhD 2002, left in October 2014 af- von Kármán Prize was awarded to two graduates: Elis- ter nine years in the faculty, having been offered an As- savet Boufidi (Greece) and Federico Bariselli (Italy) with sociate Professorship position at Purdue University, USA, their projects respectively entitled: “Time-resolved ve- with the possibility to set up there a new turbine labo- locity measurements in the wake of a low-pressure tur- ratory. To maintain the links with VKI, Guillermo was bine blade, at low Reynolds and high Mach number” nominated Adjunct Professor. Professor Jean-François and “Development of gas-surface interaction models for Brouckaert, DC 1995, PhD 2002, faculty member from DSMC (Direct Simulation Monte Carlo) methods”. Fer- 2006 to 2014, left VKI only one month later, having nando Miró Miró (Spain) was awarded the Belgian Gov- been offered the position of Project Officer for the Eu- ernment Prize. His project was related to the numer- ropean Clean Sky project (a Public Private Partnership ical study of the stability of a hypersonic boundary between the European Commission and the European layer in the presence of blowing. The Prince Alexan- aeronautics industry managing about 1 billion e of re- dre of Belgium Award for the Best Presentation, pre- search contracts). To compensate for the departure of sented by Princess Léa de Belgique, was awarded to these two faculty members, Sergio Lavagnoli, DC 2008, James Braun (Belgium) for his project on “Characteri- PhD 2013, and Fabrizio Fontaneto, DC 2010, PhD 2014, zation of complex multi-physics flow in rotating detona- were appointed in April 2015 as new Assistant Profes- tion engines”. The Excellence in Experimental Research sors. In September 2015, Professor Tom Verstraete took was awarded to Charline Fouchier (France), while the a two-year leave of absence, having accepted a presti- Excellence in Numerical Research was awarded to Va- gious Marie-Currie fellowship at Queen Mary University leria Andreoli (Italy). The Doctoral Programme counted of London in the department of Professor Jens-Dominik 57 participants decreasing from 62 last year. Eight of Mueller, DC 1990 and PhD 1995.

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 2 - 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

IXV, a success story For many years, training and research in the Aerospace and Aeronautics department were carried out for flight vehicles in applications ranging from low speed to the hypersonic regime. A significant experimental and numerical research activity on the aerothermodynamics of space vehicles entry into planetary atmospheres was supported by ESA, EC and AFOSR related to NATO-STO programmes. Since 2005, ESA developed the Interme- Sergio Lavagnoli diate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV). This program aims at consolidating Europe’s autonomous position in the strategic field of atmospheric re-entry for applications ranging from future ambitious space transportation to exploration. On 11 February 2015, the IXV completed its mission and flew a flawless re-entry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos Islands. A numbers of key technologies for re-entry maneuvers are integrated in the vehicle’s project. The von Karman In- stitute was actively involved in the establishment of the aerothermodynamic database (ATDB) and more specif- Fabrizio Fontaneto ically in the design of the Thermal Protection System (TPS). The turbomachinery department continues to bene- fit from the benevolent lecturing of the retired professors Frans Breugelmans, Claus Sieverding and René Van den Braembussche. Contacts have also been taken with the “Ecole Centrale de Lyon – Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et d’Acoustique” (Profs Isabelle Trbinjac and Dr. Xavier Ottavy) to organize common teaching activities in the field of turbomachinery. Academic contacts (mainly in the form of PhDs) have existed for many years. Also Professor Mario Carbonaro, Honorary Director, remains very active in the teaching program in general and in the Aeronautics and Aerospace department in particular. In the Environmental and Applied Fluid Dy- namics department, Tamas Regert, DC 2004, PhD 2006, was appointed as Assistant Professor, in January 2015. He replaces Professor Patrick Rambaud who left VKI in 2013 to join the European Patent office in The Hague.

Lift-off of IXV atop VEGA launch.

On the numerical side, the past year has seen Tamas Regert a milestone in the consolidation of the COOLFluiD

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 simulation platform: the project repository has been “CryoLine”, The Cryogenic Microgravity Experiments fa- moved to GitHub and all the source codes have cility “CryME” and the Cryogenic Chill-Down Experi- been released as open source since October 2015. ments Facility “CHIEF”. A new Wiki (including gallery, detailed installa- A new project, which has been granted to VKI, con- tion instructions and various kind of documenta- cerns the characterization of sloshing in microgravity tion) has been initiated and is actively updated on conditions during a parabolic flight. As far as the financ- https://github.com/andrealani/COOLFluiD/wiki. ing of this activity is concerned the parabolic flight has Regarding the facilities, the Longshot+ activities ini- been granted by ESA through a Continuously Open Re- tiated in June 2015 are supported by ESA and aim at research Announcement. The flight campaign is foreseen newing the Longshot hypersonic wind tunnel and at im- for the second half of April 2016. proving its performance. Automation of this wind tunnel DEmonstration of Myrrha Operation and CRITical is currently ongoing and will reduce its operating costs Objects for Safety and increase its productivity. A new contoured nozzle is The research program DEMOCRITOS (DEmonstra- also being designed and will extend its flight duplica- tion of Myrrha Operation and CRITical Objects for tion capabilities towards larger free-stream Mach num- Safery) conducted in the frame of the collaboration be- bers. Complementary flow diagnostic techniques have tween VKI and SCK•CEN and financed by the Belgian already been implemented and have improved its flow Science Policy Office just ended [1]. characterization. Three new facilities have resulted from this research Development of the cryogenics activities program: In the Environmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics Department, training and research have continued in • The facility MyrrhaBelle (MYRRHA Basic sEt-up fields of long-standing interest such as heat transfer and for Liquid fLow Experiments) dedicated to the the mechanics of turbulence, industrial processes, mul- full thermo-hydraulic characterization of the pri- tiphase flows, aero-acoustics, wind engineering and ma- mary circuit of the new accelerator driven (ADS) jor industrial hazards. fast spectrum heavy liquid metal research reactor MYRRHA, designed by SCK•CEN.

• The facility SHAKESPEARE (SHaking Apparatus for Kinetic Experiments of Sloshing Project with EArthquake REproduction) allows the tridimensional simulation of sloshing phenomena of the primary circuit liquid during a seismic activity.

• The facility TAUPE designed to study the propagation of ultrasonic waves in liquid in the presence of velocity and temperature gradients, with the objective to develop an imaging technique to be applied to the liquid metal situation. Along with these developments, the program DEMOCRITOS has also provided

• An innovative design of the primary circuit pumps by means of the design/optimization techniques developed in the Turbomachinery & Propulsion VKI CryME Facility mounted on VKI Shakespeare facility, department. The proposed design has been sub- to perfom a cryogenic sloshing test. Time resolved PIV is mitted for a patent. applied in liquid nitrogen. • The computer code MYRRHAfoam built upon the In particular, the department has strongly extended OpenFoam platform for the tridimensional numer- its cryogenics activities during the past year. The projects ical simulation of the thermal-hydraulic phenom- related to cryogenic science are mostly related to ena including sloshing , which might occur in the propulsion applications for space vehicles. Since 2010, primary circuit of the MYRRHA reactor. the EA department has created a cryogenic laboratory to meet the large demand coming from the industrial part- The follow-up research program DEMOCRITOS II ners in the framework of cryogenic propellant manage- will be launched very soon. ment and hydraulic elements characterization in cryo- The future aero-engines studied in the TU depart- genic conditions. An experimental and a numerical team ment compose the cryogenic laboratory. The laboratory con- For several years, the Turbomachinery and Propul- tains three main facilities: The Cryogenic Line facility sion Department has deeply specialized in activities

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 related to aero-propulsion and energy conversion by In parallel, the development of several time-resolved means of rotating machinery. At the present time, measurement techniques to quantify the higher order the department teams up with major European en- statistics of turbulence have made significant progress. gine/energy manufacturers, both within large Euro- The design and optimization activities developed by pean Commission co-funded experimental and numeri- the department during the last decade continue to at- cal projects and through bi-lateral collaborations. Strong tract more and more diversified interests. links have also been established with Cerfacs (France) Reference to promote some more fundamental research, using the [1] Planquart, Ph., “DEMOCRITOS - L’expertise en dy- department’s experimental expertise to help in validat- namique des fluides de l’Institut von Karman au service du ing High Fidelity (such as Large Eddy Simulations) CFD projet MYRRHA”, Science Connection, Issue 49, Decem- codes. ber 2015 – January 2016 A typical example, very recently acknowledged by an ASME Best Paper Award, is the aero-thermal characterization of the flow in rotating cavities. VKI is one A Network for Helping Recent VKI of the very few laboratories in the world where both Graduates aerodynamic (time resolved Particle Image Velocimetry) and heat transfer (Liquid Crystal thermometry) mea- a new VKI-AA support action surements are performed in the rotating frame of refer- ive years ago, Mickey Greenblatt, Vice-President ence, providing high quality validation data for classical for North America, proposed at the 55th anniver- RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) but also High Fsary of VKI’s founding to establish a Network or Fidelity computational methods. Moreover, these inves- Forum for alumni of VKI to help current students and tigations are conducted at engine similar operating con- recent alumni with advice on job prospects as well as ditions, allowing a more straight forward extrapolation research projects. to the real world. The expertise acquired has allowed But as often, the proposal did not immediately fall on the department to diversify its activities in aero-thermal a fertile ground. Mickey must have felt a bit like preach- forced convection problems. ing in a desert. However he did not feel defeated. His initiative was debated again at the VKI-AA board meet- ing in October 2014 and in October 2015 Mickey pre- sented a concrete proposal including a detailed spread sheet asking for volunteers, to be sent by the board members to their chapter members. So far 43 alumni have volunteered, representing nine countries and with experience in a wide variety of careers. Some are retired. Some are actively engaged in research today. All are willing to point students and recent graduates in interesting directions for their own research and personal job searches. But the participation from the various countries is rather uneven; in particular the participation from France, Spain and Italy is very scarce. The volunteer data base needs to be improved before com- municating it to all Alumni. You can advance this effort in several ways: Ribbed cooling channel equipped with liquid crystals on a rotating 2.5m diameter table (Re = 20, 000, Ro = ±1). • You can add your own name as a volunteer to help students and other alumni, you may (to open/save the embedded Ex- Two major facilities of the department have also cel Sheet) and send it via email to Mickey Green- been strongly updated. The short duration high speed blatt [email protected] turbine facility CT-3 is equipped with a brand-new high pressure supply. Recent contacts with industry point to • You can contact other members of your class at a positive future for this almost unique wind tunnel. VKI and encourage them to volunteer as well. The closed-loop compressor facility R4 is under complete renovation in order to host the LEMCOTEC (EU programme) test sections. In addition to the replace- With your help we can do more for VKI graduates. ment of the heat exchanger systems, the facility will now be able to run at rotational speeds up to 16,000 rpm to Fernando Lopez-Pena (DC1987) accommodate HP core compressor models. VKI-AA President

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 “. . . a small piece of VKI’s spirit has been ﬂowing through the cables of one of the biggest supercomputers in the world.”

by ALEJANDRO ALVAREZ LAGUNA VKIPHDCANDIDATE WINNEROF VKI-AARESEARCH TRAVEL GRANT 2015

Evolution of slow magnetoacoustic waves in the Sun’s lower atmosphere. The plots represent different snapshots Alejandro Alvarez Laguna. of the evolution of the vertical velocity of ions. The lines represent the magnetic field lines corresponding to a flux am Alejandro Alvarez Laguna, PhD student of the tube. The perturbation excited on the surface of the sun Aeronautics and Aerospace department at VKI, and travels along the atmosphere accelerating and forming Ilast summer, I was awarded the VKI-AA Research shocks that heat up the plasma. The model used in these Travel Grant. As a student finishing his second year of simulations allows for studying the effects of partial PhD, I had the unique opportunity to visit NASA Ames ionization and thermal and chemical non-equilibrium in Research Center (NASA ARC) in Moffett Field (Califor- the propagation of waves. nia) and collaborate with the team of Dr. Nagi N. Man- sour at the Advanced Supercomputing Division First, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Nagi I think my interest in science and space started when N. Mansour, for hosting me last summer at NASA ARC. I was very young. As a child, I used to sit down with my The stay at NASA Ames has been a really fruitful experi- family on the porch during the summer nights, when ence in both the personal and the scientific point of view. it was too hot to sleep. I remember staring up into the It has been a great opportunity for me to interact with night sky, trying to spot the few constellations I knew world-class researchers, experts on the field, and being among all the twinkling lights from the distant galax- able to discuss on my work during the weekly meet- ies. It was long time after the starry nights on the porch, ings. Especially, it has been a great honor and a pleasure when I studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytech- to have the opportunity of working with Dr. Mansour. nic University of Madrid, that I understood that mathe- He has a deep knowledge in a wide range of branches matics were able to explain the dynamics of the planets of fluid dynamics, including turbulence, aerothermody- as well as many other phenomena occurring in the uni- namics, computational fluid dynamics, ablation of ther- verse. When I learned the fluid dynamics equations, I re- mal protection system materials, solar physics. . . His member feeling amazed by this strange set of equations, sound advice has been really useful and clarifying and able to explain both the swirling movement when you his positive attitude and leadership was motivating and stir your coffee, the strikingly fast movement of the air encouraging during my stay and for my future. around a supersonic airplane, or the hot plasma around The facilities at NASA ARC are simply amazing. I had a capsule entering the atmosphere from the space. Now, the opportunity to run large numerical simulations in after having completed the Research Master at VKI and Pleiades, NASA’s supercomputer. All the developments having started the PhD, I know that the same equations carried out during my PhD were implemented in the are also able to explain the convective movement of the COOLFluiD platform. This code has been developed dur- plasma inside the stars and the eruptions and bursts taking one decade at VKI by a number of researchers. Its ing place in the Sun’s atmosphere, causing flares as pow- quality and design allowed to run it on a large num- erful as billion atomic bombs! This is the topic of my ber of processors, being able to take advantage of the research, studying the magnetic reconnection, the phe- power of this supercomputer. Also, since the code has nomenon occurring in plasmas under the effect of mag- been developed in collaboration with so many VKI peo- netic fields that triggers the solar flares by converting ple during so many years, we can imagine that a small magnetic energy into kinetic energy and heat. piece of VKI’s spirit has been flowing through the cables

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 6 - 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 of one of the biggest supercomputers in the world. landscapes are hard to see in Europe, even though you better bring some water with you before hiking.

Me visiting Canyonlands National Park in Utah. I have never been on Mars, but one can imagine that the landscape could be very similar except for a bit more Me visiting Pleiades, NASA’s supercomputer. Even though pleasant atmosphere. pictures have no sound, the noise of the fans inside the room can be really disturbing. However, the hairstyle is My stay at NASA ARC was, without any doubt, a life- not due to the fans, but due to wearing a helmet when time experience. I could also progress in my work, giving commuting to work. the possibility of submitting a journal article and obtain- ing interesting results on the wave propagation in the sun atmosphere and the effect of radiation on the reconnection that are now being analyzed to be published in future articles. I would like to thank the VKI-AA for giving the support to young researchers to make progress in their work collaborating with foreign institutions. As Apollinaire wrote once: “Il faut voyager loin en aimant sa maison” (Travel far while still loving your home). Experiences as Visiting Professor at Chinese Universities

Francesco Panerai, Laura Villafañe and me. Remembering good old times with Belgian fries and beers, now across by GÉRARD BOIS the ocean. DC 1972, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, My stay at NASA ARC allowed me to meet some old ENSAMLILLE,FRANCE VKI fellows: Francesco Panerai, Khalil Bensassi, Laura Villafañe and Alessandro Munafo. In fact, it is remark- his article records my own experience about liv- able the number of VKI PhDs that went to work as a ing, teaching and performing research collabora- Post-doc at NASA or at Stanford which is just a stone’s Ttions in several Chinese university campuses. The throw from NASA ARC. It was nice to enjoy my time only knowledge I previously had about the Asian culture there with them and with some old friends from the time was related to my elementary school level where teach- I was intern at NASA. I remembered again that Califor- ers were explaining, with some nostalgia, the beneﬁts of nian summer is perfect to organize barbecues! the colonizing virtues of France in South East Asia after Also, I had time to travel and enjoy the beauty and the end of the second world war and before this period, wealth of the American Southwest. Since I previously of our old French enclaves in India or in Shanghai. visited the National Parks in California, I decided to or- I had already met several Chinese researchers dur- ganize a small trip in the states of Utah and Arizona. If ing international symposiums in Japan and South Ko- you like Western movies, this trip is a must! The vast rea and in Honolulu during ISROMAC conferences. On deserts covering the Southwest host a wide variety of these various occasions, I became aware that the way landscapes and nature, including the Monument Val- of living in South Korea and Japan is not comparable ley, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. All these with the Chinese one, as I previously thought, except

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 7 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association for the particular exercise which consists in correctly us- Jiangsu University, received a national government vis- ing chopsticks. I must say that one can quickly become iting fellowship to spend one academic year in the Tur- an expert except when you have to eat slippery noodles bomachinery Lab at ENSAM Lille; I was in charge of the or boiled eggs. lab at that time. This opportunity was the starting point of two months’ visits in 2014 and 2015 at the Jiangsu Univer- sity which is located in Zhenjiang, a city of four to five million inhabitants in Jiangsu province (east of Nanjing) along the south bank of the Yangtze river. During these two months, I usually gave lectures, in English (being now a too lazy man to learn to speak Mandarin), on “in- ternal flows in pumps” to master degree students and started collaborative work on several research topics related to fluid mechanics and engineering problems in pumps.

Honolulu, ISROMAC’12 Conference, 2008, with Liliane and Claus Sieverding. Claus is looking around how to use chopsticks in a Japanese steakhouse restaurant, while Liliane decided that fork and knife were more convenient tools.

My very ﬁrst contact with China took place in November 2008, thanks to an invitation from Profes- sor Yulin WU of Beijing (Tsinghua University). In April 2009, during the ASME Fluid Engineering conference- Vail Colorado, I was invited for an extended visit of the Jiangsu University. In November of the same year, as a Invited lecture in Jiangsu University with Paul Cooper member of the French Delegation of ParisTech Associa- (Consultant, previously in Flowserve Corp.) – October tion, I also visited several other universities in Beijing 2010. (Beihang University), Shanghai (JiaTong University), Xi’an (Jiatong University), Hangzhou (Zhejiang Univer- sity), Wuhan (University of Technology) and Chengdu University as well. Between 2010 and 2013, I attended several conferences, being invited by Professor Shouqi YUAN, Presi- dent of Jiangsu University.

First lecture’s ceremony with Professor Martin BOEHLE (TU Kaiserslautern), Professor Jianping YUAN (Chief Engineer – Research Center of Fluid Machinery Main administrative building – Jiangsu Engineering and Technology), and Professor Shouqi University-Zhenjiang City- Jiangsu province. YUAN (President of Jiangsu University). Jiangsu University, October 2014. More speciﬁc relationships started in 2014. These relationships are primarily based on direct contacts be- The Jiangsu University provided me with a medium tween French and Chinese labs. In this frame, a PhD range hotel room for my whole stay quite close to the student from the National Research Center of Pumps at campus. – During my stay I was frequently the source of

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 many curious glances, foreign teachers being rather rare Fast trains are always on time and easy to use. Bigger before 2008. towns like Nanjing or Shanghai are half an hour and two Let me give some specific aspects of the Chinese way hours, respectively, from the Zhenjiang railway station. of life. This started at the very first morning of my stay walking from the hotel to the campus. People often begin the day with morning exercises, individually or spon- taneously in groups on pavements or in parks. They usually do jogging or traditional exercises such as Tai-Chi. One often sees elderly people practice these gymnastics. By the way, you must also know that one of the first Chinese duties is the creation of a spittle. It is really a “creation” because it seems to me like a kind of art as a way to get this pure product “made in China”. As in any art, there is a method, always the same one. Three main phases: the scraping, the mixture with a lot of saliva of course, and finally an expectorated jet towards the floor. Don’t worry about its trajectory. It usually reaches the target avoiding any neighbors. Around approximately 7-8 o’clock, the streets are filled by cyclists and moto-bikers who are on the way Garden view in the old part of Suzhou’s city. to work. A large amount of people use also public transport or their own car, so the roads are often completely For leisure, there exists, in big cities, a wide range of overloaded. activities, in particular cinema, theater, sporting events, So, after having avoided spittle, and because pedes- excursions towards historic sites and of course radio and trians are regarded as the last level of the chain of travel- television. Otherwise, part of my evenings was devoted ing people, another kind of exercise is to avoid all kinds to watching TV or reading books. The number of TV of bikes on the sidewalks and even cars when crossing channels is quite important (more than 40), but on the at the red lights. Indeed, the majority of the cycles and other hand they are not very diversified. Chinese people scooters are now electrically powered and thus don’t like medieval dramas with costumes that are sometimes make any noise. A general rule: never suddenly change rather kitsch. It is difficult to find foreign TV channels in your own direction, never accelerate or decelerate when small hotels; so, only sport TV was my favorite during walking. Chinese are used to control their direction com- lots of evenings. The night life, which did not exist in pared to yours only if you adopt this “safe way of walk- the past, develops today in many cities. Restaurants are ing”. quite popular and numerous. When driving cars, people roll quickly, always using Chinese people like to play cards, dance or music. their horns, generally don’t use a seat belt, take over Don’t be astonished to see several groups of men play- even with a car moving in the opposite direction and ing chess and Mahjong in the street at any time during red lights seem to be there only for decoration. the day. Trying to understand the rules seems to be impossible for foreigners.

One of the three temples in Zhenjiang city.

Travelling by bus or train is quite safe of course. You Old music instrument player. may need some help with translation of travel signs. Stu- dents usually are quite proud to take time with you and People prefer to invite guests downtown or on the make local visits to museums, temples or old city areas country side but not at home mainly because food is not

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 9 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association very expensive and flats are quite small. In the north of China people prefer to eat foods made with wheat flour: bread cooked with steam, pancakes, noodles or pastries of all kinds. In south China, rice is more popular. In a daily meal, the number of dishes is limited to three or four and laid out at the same time in the middle of the table so that everyone can help himself. Meals in- clude typically several kinds of vegetables, fish and meat dishes, always with bones which people like to suck and generally finish with light soup or noodles rather than a sweet dessert because most Chinese do not like overly sweetened food. In restaurants, and especially during week-ends, you may find large round tables with ten people or even more. All dishes are placed in the middle of the table which allows everybody to choose from any dishes by rotating the table. Sometimes, you may and must eat some strange food. Oak half-head grilled meat.

As regards my teaching activities, most of the master degree and PhD students really like foreign teachers mainly because their way of teaching is quite different. There are still professors that mainly teach rules for engineering application instead of understanding physics from basic equations. Foreign technical language is still a problem for the students and as a result, interactions between students and professors are rather strict and strongly related to Chinese education. This is going to change thanks to young teachers and researchers that stayed several months abroad and now more and more go back to their country instead of remaining abroad as Round table dinner with René Van den Braembussche and was previously the case. At the same time, an important his wife. effort is made to attract foreign professors when organizing international conferences and to start cooperative relationships on specific research topics. During meals, warm water and the tea are drunk on each occasion. However, people like to drink some alco- Over the last decades, most technical universities hol. In China, there exist many varieties of beer, includ- have decided to increase the number of students and ing a brand brewed according to a process of German this has resulted in an important competition between preparation like the famous beer of Qingdao. One uses them. The percentage of female students increases also grape and fruit wines with more than 100 spices. rapidly and is now up to 35%, for example on the en- Thus, restaurants may become quite noisy because of gineering department in Jiangsu University. natural friendship for the majority of Chinese. Noise can be amplified as long as several toasts are generally pro- University campuses look like North American cam- posed and if, at the same time, your neighbor starts to puses. They are usually located far from downtown. eat noodles or soup. Consequently, most of the students, up to 85%, live in So, basically, food cooking is quite healthy, boiled, common rooms inside the campus. However, a small steamed and sometimes very spicy. Imagine, compared number of young teachers (15%) rent or buy small flats to a French way of life: no bread, no cheese, no wine, instead of staying inside the campus. The student way no butter. The best way to lose some weight quite easily, of life seems to be rather difficult. Students take break- without any effort!!!! fast before the start of the lectures (around 7:30); lunch Now, as in every industrial country, hamburgers, is around 11:30-12:00. This explains why most restau- chicken wings and fast food are more and more pop- rants do not have anything to eat after 12:15. Lastly, din- ular for youths and these restaurants are often open 24 ner takes place around 17:00-18:00. Lectures are given hours a day. all week except on Sundays.

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Experimental set-ups are mainly devoted to overall per- formances measurements. The Chinese society is very inﬂuenced by English speaking European countries and USA products and occidental way of life. This is also the case of Chinese universities who want to achieve the same level of excellence and background. But this is only possible for some selected top level universities that have been chosen by the central government authorities, namely national universities or national research centers. For the future the need of more fundamental research has been recognized by central and local provin- cial authorities. Good level Chinese students have the opportunity to get national fellowships when invited Jiangsu University, October 2015. Sino-German by foreign universities. This allows them to go back to Symposium for Research Promotion. China and get more easily a research position in indus- European invited speakers (in alphabetic order): tries, research centers and universities. They are encour- Professors Luca d’Agostino (University of Pisa-Italy), aged to do so and this allows them to develop more Gerard Bois (Arts et Métiers ParisTech-Lille-France), critical thinking based on the individual thanks to the Martin Böhle (TU Kaiserslautern-Germany), Hans Josef fact that research teams in Europe are generally smaller Dohmen (University of Duisburg-Essen-Germany), Franco compared to Chinese teams. This is probably also the Magagnato (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology-Germany, way to attract more foreign occidental students. Giorgio Pavesi (University of Padua-Italy), Peter Pelz (TU Darmstadt-Germany), Rudolph Schilling (TU Alumni dinner in San Diego München-Germany)

Up to six students live in a common room (three bunk beds, each with a small rack on the side of the head) of about 15 to 16 square meters. Room locations are well distributed inside the campus: students who make the same studies are put together. Controlled In- ternet access is possible in their room; they have to pay a very small amount of yuan per month, and have their by TOM WAYMAN own computers. The students usually must take their DC 1994 showers in a separate building beside the campus because the water in their rooms is cold. had the pleasure of organizing the now Annual Din- It is difficult to find students from Europe and Amer- ner for VKI Alumni during the 2016 AIAA SciTech ica in China. Most foreign students come from South IConference held this past January in San Diego, Cal- East Asia, Korea, Indonesia, Australia and also a lot from ifornia at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The Grand Hyatt Africa. This is directly related with Chinese foreign pol- sits majestically on the San Diego Bay composed of two icy of cooperation. Lecture rooms and teaching facilities towers, and housing over 1,600 rooms. The taller of the are quite important and use new technologies. Students towers is the third highest in the city of San Diego and can use quite a lot of local computing facilities as in oc- claims the spot as tallest building on the waterfront on cidental countries. On the other hand, the use of experi- the West Coast. Despite the incredible views much of the mental facilities is quite low for teaching activities. This week was hampered by rain and wind that kept most of is also in relation to the way research activities are con- the conference goers inside the hotel. ducted in China. Inside the hotel there was a flurry of activities with Concerning research, PhD theses are more focused 4050 conference participants, 2,100 presentations, and on industrial applications rather than on fundamental 412 technical sessions. The conference attracted partic- fluid dynamic problems. This is mainly related to the ipants from 800 institutions and 39 countries. Of those strong technical development of China over the past presenting papers Belgians represented ten (10) papers years and the industrial needs in this particular part of and of those there were three papers from VKI. Like the Jiangsu Province for fluid machinery problems. Up last year, a few of the VKI folks found time to gather to now, most applied research is performed to improve and reminisce about their time at VKI at a local spot, existing designs for better efficiencies and longer life. Seasons 52. In fact our group of eleven represented ev- These actions are essentially done using existing com- ery decade between the 1960s and now; however Dr. mercial CFD codes which are mainly purchased abroad. Bryan Richards carried double duty and represented

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 11 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association both the 1960s and 70s! It was a pleasant evening not months, rather than the longer academic commitment typ- only reminiscing about our experiences of living in Bel- ical for a traditional Masters program. And when I learned gium and attending VKI but a number of current and that the VKI student body represented all the NATO coun- recent Alumni shared with us the current happenings at tries, I liked that it would bring me in contact with not just the Institute. one or a few nationalities, but instead, a broad grouping.”

Peter Falatyn receiving his Diploma in 1987.

Left to Right: Sergio Lavagnoli (DC 2008), David Tell us of your recollections of life at VKI and in Brus- Gonzalez Cuadrado (DC 2014), Margaret Richards sels. (Bryan’s wife), Elisa Pescini (DC 2012), Bryan Richards “There are so many very fond ones – all of them involv- (Faculty 1967-79), James Donahue (DC 1987), Tom ing lots of laughter. Any notions I might have had about Wayman (DC 1994), Shinji Nagai (DC 1999), Tom the Diploma Course students as nerdy and quiet were very Ferrell (DC 2004), Cis De Maesschalck (DC 2012), quickly dispelled after the Greek Party organized at the Valeria Andreoli (DC 2015) VKI one fall weekend. I, and all the other non-Greeks, added “Retsina” to our vocabularies that night. Interview with Peter Falatyn, DC 1987 “Mainly, I recall my basement apartment in Ixelles as a starting or ending point for many (many, many) wine & beer-fueled evenings. (My landlord was very patient with me.) Since I lived on the main route between the Institute and Brussels’ Grande Place, my tiny apartment seemed like a logical place for people to collect. So they did, at all hours. Practically none of us had home telephones at that time, so the “drop-in” visit was our social media. I was very grateful for the good company. I worked for a by JOHN WENDT,FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI time at VKI with a student from Delft, Rob Kouwenberg, AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA and he taught me how to stuff a chicken with 50 cloves of garlic. It seemed very exotic to me at the time, and besides, eter, thanks for agreeing to an interview for the what did we know? We were hungry students. Rob and I VKI Alumni Association’s Newsletter, NL19. Your are good friends to this day. Pcareer following graduation in 1987 has been fas- ”While I usually socialized with the French contin- cinating and I know that our members will enjoy reading gent, I recall a two-week Christmas adventure when Lucie about it. Huang and I were hosted by part of the Italian contingent Let’s start at the beginning. Why did you choose to in Milan, Pesaro, and Rome. (Thanks, Nicola and Mau- come to VKI? rizio!) I had never before taken a 12 hour road trip to “There were a few compelling reasons. By the time I anywhere, much less to a country as enchanting as Italy was finishing my undergraduate studies, I had already during Christmas. I remember Lucie got her first pasta- spent about seven months studying and working in France, making lesson from Nicola’s mom, and like the real Ital- and I sensed I was a budding Europhile. My advisor at MIT, ians, we spent the evenings promenading in the main Dr. Sheila Widnall, after her long association with the US squares. I added “Prosciutto, per favore.” to my vocabu- Air Force (she later became the first woman Secretary of lary. the Air Force) was well acquainted with VKI as a top re- Have you returned to VKI since graduation? search institute. She had recommended VKI to me as a “Yes, just once, in June 1989 – two years after com- place where I could do a research-focused program in 10 pleting the DC. I remember collecting for dinner with a

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 few good friends who remained at the VKI for doctoral Corporation, which was just beginning forays into Russia studies, and we raised glasses in a toast to our friend Carl following the break-up of the Soviet Union. I became Lock- Schrader, who had died tragically in a road accident while heed’s (and later, Lockheed Martin’s) sole corporate busi- touring the USA. Carl was to his core a charming, gregar- ness development consultant for Russia and the Former ious fellow. It was very meaningful for me to read Paul Soviet Union. The mid 1990s were very exciting times in Tinari’s tribute to Carl’s friendship in his interview from Russia, particularly since all of the major Russian research the Feb 2015 Newsletter.” centers were direly under-funded, and doors to formerly se- Looking back on your life since 1987, how would you cret research centers were quite literally flung open at the characterize the influence of your year at VKI on your mention of Lockheed. career? And what were the major elements that have “This was a time of “technology harvesting” by many constituted your career to date? foreign companies in Russia. Lockheed, too, was seeking “My project was an investigation of axial velocity dis- interesting and innovative technologies that could be in- tributions in vortices over delta wings at transonic speeds. corporated into its existing or future programs. One pro- Naturally, I was pleased to add many hours of practical gram which was particularly gratifying for me created aerodynamic research to my CV – and that did help me in a Lockheed Martin joint venture for the acquisition of my future job search. But some of the benefits from VKI Russian-sourced RD-180 engines for the Atlas launch vehi- were not as straight-forward as I might have anticipated cle from NPO Energomash near Moscow. I worked as Lock- when I began the Diploma Course. heed Martin’s direct liaison to Energomash, the Russian “For one, I recall an evening at the opera shortly after Space Agency, and Ministry of Defense, securing political I arrived in Brussels. I cannot – for the life of me – recall and technical support necessary for the technology transfer the performance. I didn’t enjoy it, but I do recall vividly agreements. The US and Russian teams were some of the that during the intermissions I was surrounded by Rus- most talented and dedicated I have ever worked with, con- sian speakers. I found that intriguing, since it wasn’t im- cluding with the purchase of $1B of engines for the Atlas mediately clear to me that Brussels was the headquarters program. for the European Commission. I did a little research, and “In 1997, I transitioned from Lockheed Martin to a learned that the famous language school “ISTI” offered in- Moscow-based Intergovernmental Organization working expensive evening classes, so I began studying Russian 2 in nonproliferation of weapons technologies – the Inter- nights per week after leaving VKI for the day. This had a national Science and Technology Center (ISTC). The gov- major impact on my future prospects. ernment contacts and broad research institute exposure “As an aside, people ask me all the time how many lan- I gained through Lockheed Martin were a direct match guages I speak. I reply without hesitation: “French, Rus- with ISTC’s work directing weapons scientists to civilian sian, Italian – all the major salad dressings.” And I’ve been research. During my eight years at ISTC, I managed the working on Arabic for the last two years, so who knows Center’s grant research programs and operations of its 6 where that will take me? But I can definitely trace my branch offices in FSU capital cities. My oversight of these polyglot roots back to the VKI. offices required regular travel to the Caucasus and Central “In particular, I’m grateful to Prof. John Wendt who Asia, which always included visits to research institutes organized the DC students’ visit to the Paris Air Show in conducting ISTC-funded research and to the national min- 1987. John really worked his Rolodex and got all of us in- istries who supported us. vitations to the corporate hospitality suites at the edge of “The hospitality of the local hosts was stunningly gen- the runway. (I previously had been to the Paris Air Show erous. For example, it took me five years to complete the in 1985 as a mere “public visitor”; I can attest, the cor- integration of Tajikistan into ISTC – from my first ex- porate suites are superior to standing in the sun or rain ploratory visit to Dushanbe in 2000 to Tajikistan’s formal surrounded by the huddled masses!) I was fortunate to be accession to the ISTC Treaty in 2004. I cannot remember hosted by Rockwell International, and a contact I made the number of total visits, but I clearly recall the many then to a Rockwell Vice President resulted in a dream of- warm receptions and the most interesting business trip of fer as design aerodynamicist for the X-30 Aerospace Plane. my life – a 10 hour journey by car from Dushanbe through This was my first job after leaving VKI, and very much the Zarafshan Range to meet Tajik scientists in Khujand, a plum position in a growing design team. The X-30 was in the Fergana Valley. one of the last really innovative new programs prior to “And to demonstrate what a small world we live in, the end of the Cold War and the subsequent de-funding in Dr. Jean-Pierre Contzen, President of the VKI Board of Di- aerospace. rectors, also served as representative from the European “Following my time at Rockwell International and re- Union to the ISTC Scientific Advisory Committee. He was ceipt of my MBA from UCLA in 1993, I was extremely for- a tireless proponent of East-West scientific cooperation. I tunate to be recruited out of Los Angeles by a boutique met with Jean-Pierre on many occasions during his trips investment bank in Moscow, Russia. My aerospace expe- to Moscow; he was always eager to inform me on current rience and Russian-language skill figured prominently in news from the VKI. Requiescat in pace, Jean-Pierre.” the bank’s decision, since a major client was the Lockheed Tell us about your present activities and future plans.

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“After my extended time in Russia, I’ve now been in the USA since 2009 to be near family in San Diego, where I’m doing development consulting for a range of small or- ganizations. I’m planning to depart from the US in early Summer 2016, to begin some personal creative projects in France and then likely continue to the Middle East. If any of my former VKI friends and colleagues ﬁnd me (I’ll be a slow-moving target), I’d be really delighted to reconnect after so many years. They can contact me via Facebook or LinkedIn.” Many thanks, Peter. All the best and keep in touch.

With colleagues at the ISTC Branch Ofﬁce in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. (2003).

At the Institute for Chemistry in Dushanbe, with Prof. Ulmas Mirsaidov – President of the Tajik Academy of Sciences (2003). Stopping for lunch at a shepherd’s hut in the Zarafshan Mountains, during the return from Khujand, Tajikistan. (2005).

At a dinner hosted by the Tajik Academy of Sciences. (2003). Tourism to Iceland’s geysers. (2010).

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Supersonic Fighters and the Learjet – Over the next five years he made important con- tributions to the field of high-speed aerodynamics and TvK in post-war Switzerland in 1925-1926 led the newly-formed Kaiser Wilhelm In- stitute for Flow Research (today’s Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization). It was during this time that von Kármán, a generation older and nearing the end of his years in Aachen, became friends with Ackeret. Upon his return to Switzerland in 1927 Ack- eret accepted the position of Chief of Hydraulics for turbine manufacturer Escher Wyss, where he applied, with by KENT P. MISEGADES, VKI DC ’80 great success, his knowledge of aerodynamics in the design of gas turbines. Later, as director of the Institute for n my previous article, which appeared in NL18 Aerodynamics at the ETH during WWII, he greatly in- (Theodore von Kármán and Espionage – Part II), I fluenced thinking in Switzerland on the need to develop Idescribed how Theodore von Kármán employed the domestic military aircraft, the future designers of which services of former OSS master spy Morris ‘Moe’ Berg to were graduates of his own institute. Ackeret’s work with secure the release of his brother Miklós and his wife weapons maker Oerlikon likely played a role in its pres- Margit from Soviet-occupied Hungary in 1954, and to ident, German-born Georg Bührle (considered in 1941 keep abreast of European scientific activities that would to be the wealthiest person in Switzerland) to form Pila- be of interest to AGARD. In this article I am returning tus in 1939, a company focused on the maintenance of first to the subject of aeronautics, focusing on TvK’s in- Swiss Air Force aircraft. (Today Pilatus, located in Stans, volvement with an ambitious, but short-lived attempt by near Lucerne, is an important producer of aircraft for the Swiss to develop a supersonic fighter aircraft, the military training, STOL operations and business use.) EFW N-20 Aiguillon and how this lead to the develop- Ackeret’s supersonic wind tunnels in Zürich and in ment of the first Learjet. Guidonia, Italy left a great impression on TvK, eventu- The roots of Switzerland’s small, but important air- ally leading to the construction of similar facilities in craft industry can be traced to one key person, men- the US. For a small, land-locked country, Switzerland tioned in previous articles, Dr. Jakob Ackeret. Following at the end of WWII possessed some of the brightest completion of his studies in mechanical engineering at minds and most sophisticated aerodynamic test facilities the ETH Zürich and a year working as an assistant to in the world, making it no great surprise that von Kár- the famed gas turbine expert Aurel Stodola at the same mán would choose the cities of Zürich and Bern among school, Ackeret traveled to Göttingen in the fall of 1921 the places where he would spend much of his time in his for what was to have been one year of study in high- final years. speed airflows. He had already developed an interest in aeronautics during his undergraduate studies as a par- ticipant in the AGIS – the ’Akademische Gesellschaft fur Flugwesen’, the Academic Society for Aviation, affiliated with the Swiss Aero Club. Upon the conclusion of his first year in Göttingen, Prandtl offered him an assistant’s position, which Ackeret accepted.

The Haefeli DH-5, Switzerland’s most advanced fighter aircraft, first flew in March of 1919. During WWI, the Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerk- stätte K+W (Federal Construction Works) in Thun, south of Bern, produced a line of aircraft from the Swiss engineer August Haefeli, chief of design there from 1915-1929, whose first experiences with aircraft came while employed at the Aerowerken Gustav Otto Jakob Ackeret on the wing of an AGIS aircraft in 1921. in Paris and Berlin from 1912–1915. Gustav Otto, an

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 15 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association early German aircraft designer and son of Nicolaus Au- gust Otto (of Otto engine cycle fame), later formed the Gustav Otto Flugmaschinenwerke to produce training aircraft for the Bavarian air force. When this went bankrupt in 1916, its assets were merged with the Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH to form a new company, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG (BFW) (Bavarian Air- craft Works), from which car-maker Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW), originally a manufacturer of aircraft engines, later evolved.

At the outbreak of WWII, the production of aircraft in Switzerland was limited to K+W in Thun, Pilatus in Stans, and Dornier (the author’s and VKI Director Muy- laert’s former employer), which conveniently moved across Lake Constance from Germany to Altenrhein, Switzerland at the end of WWI to avoid the restric- tions imposed by the Versailles Treaty. During the war, the aircraft construction activities of K+W formed the basis of the new Eidgenössisches Flugzeugwerk F+W (Federal Aircraft Works, also known as EFW) which was moved in 1943 from Thun to Emmen, near Lucerne, Noted CalTech astrophysicist and early gas turbine expert where it remains today as the company RUAG (Rüstungs Fritz Zwicky (right) was also an accomplished Alpinist. Unternehmen Aktiengesellschaft = Armament Company AG) At this same time, the Swiss government funded the Another important figure in this story was Fritz early development of both jet aircraft and jet engines, Zwicky. Born in 1898 in Bulgaria and raised in Glarus, the majority of the work to be performed by Ackeret’s Switzerland, he was a fellow student of Ackeret’s at the former students at F+W in Emmen and at the large for- ETH who emigrated to the US in 1925 after receiv- mer Dornier facility in Altenrhein, renamed after the ing a scholarship to study at CalTech. Today he is re- th war FFA, for the ’Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein membered as one of the 20 century’s leading astro- AG’ (English: Flight and Vehicle Factory Altenrhein). It physicists and as the discoverer of supernovae, neutron was partly due to the location and ownership of these stars, gravitational lenses, dark matter and numerous two facilities – Federally-owned F+W in Canton Lucerne comets and other heavenly bodies, the result of count- and privately-owned FFA in Canton St. Gallen – that less nights spent in the Mount Wilson and Palomar Ob- would lead to the political friction in the 1950s and the servatories in southern California. Zwicky was also very ultimate demise of the project. interested in jet and rocket propulsion, which led to his association with von Kármán and his later appointment as the Research for Director for Aerojet, the company founded by TvK and his former students (the Suicide Squad, see NL9). Unlike von Kármán, Zwicky chose not to become an American citizen, but harbored dreams instead of influencing Swiss scientific policy from afar and perhaps one day returning to his native country as the Swiss equivalent of Theodore von Kármán. While Zwicky’s lack of diplomacy (he was an unapologetic cur- mudgeon) prevented him from achieving this, together with Ackeret he played an important role in Swiss thinking towards the end of WWII that led to the attempt to develop a supersonic fighter aircraft as well as the jet engine to power it – two very ambitious goals consid- ering the small size of their land-locked country and its population, only 4.4 million in 1945, approximately the same as the city of Toronto, Canada today. Following the end of the war the Swiss Air Force re- lied on an aging inventory of Messerschmitt Me-109, Morane-Saulnier MS.406 as well as an odd collection of Allied and Axis aircraft salvaged from those forced Ackeret’s large tunnel under construction at the ETH. to land in Switzerland during the war for various rea-

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 sons. In an effort to modernize, the Swiss government in 1947 decided to upgrade its air force with the acquisition of British DeHavilland Vampire fighter aircraft. This was seen as a temporary solution until the first Swiss- developed jet fighter would be ready. That military authorities believed this to be possible was the result of encouragement of Ackeret, Zwicky, and TvK, three of the world’s foremost authorities on high-speed aircraft and aircraft propulsion. They also saw the example of the successful Swedish aircraft industry, in a land of comparable population, as further encouragement for their ambitious plans. Soon after the war, the Swiss engaged Zwicky for his help with Aerojet-produced JATO rockets needed for future jet aircraft. Zwicky was personally involved in early tests of these rockets in Switzerland in 1947. Ackeret’s contacts within Swiss industry led to collaboration with the EFW in Emmen for the airframe and with his former employer, turbine maker Escher Wyss, for the aircraft’s jet engine. Two other Swiss firms were involved, Brown Boveri (BBC) and Sulzer, which had pursued research into jet engines, with Ackeret’s help, starting in the 1930s. Work on the jet-propelled fighter/bomber, designated the N-20 Aiguillon (in English: “Stinger”), began in earnest in 1948. Requirements included high maneuverability, a top speed of Mach 1, and short take- off distance. The configuration was radical for the times – a tailless design with no separate empennage. At low speed extendible flaps would be used for stability. Such tailless aircraft had been under development during the war, in particular under Alexander Lippisch, whose famed rocket-propelled Me-163 Komet was used with some success in the final months. Perceiving that such a radical airframe design combined with unproven jet engines to be produced by companies who had never before made either, Ackeret and EFW engineers planned a progression of three prototypes following extensive wind tunnel testing as well as ‘free spin’ testing of a wooden model dropped from a narrow swinging cable bridge in an Alpine valley. (Clear footage of these tests can be found around the 6:50 minute mark of the YouTube video “Schweizer Kampf- jets – Filz Skandale und Abstürze Teil 1/4”, an excellent four-part documentary on the development of Swiss jet fighters.) The first flying prototype was a 3/5th scale wooden glider, designated EFW N-20.01, built to allow testing of the novel wing shape; this flew on 17 April 1948. It became airborne with the help of small JATO rockets, perhaps provided by TvK’s Aerojet. It was also towed aloft behind a K+W (EFW) C-36 aircraft. Chal- lenges associated with tailless aircraft and related flying wings remained however, especially regarding their lon- Unique ‘free-spin’ tests of a wooden model of the N-20, gitudinal stability at low speed. N-20 developers experi- top to bottom: model prepared for testing, the model and enced this first-hand when the N-20.01 glider crashed test equipment had to be hand-carried up the mountain, on the Thun airfield in 1949. From video footage of researchers on a narrow hanging cable bridge high above these tests it is clear that the aircraft lacked stability at an Alpine stream below, the model in free-fall. low speeds.

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Sulzer. The initial engine choice was a small turbojet, the Sulzer D45, with a thrust of 7.38 kN (1,660 lbf), which was abandoned in 1947. Only two prototype D45 engines were built in 1948. The first engine, D45.01 was used in a test rig between 1950 and 1951 and the second engine, D45.04 (of limited airworthiness) was used until 1955 in a test rig. The Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turboprop was then chosen as the basis for the N-20’s engines, with the pro- peller reduction gear replaced by a low pressure compressor. This powerplant was named Swiss Mamba SM- 1, the conversion was carried out in 1948 by EFW, with only six engines built (four fitted to the N-20 with two The 3/5ths scale, wooden EFW N-20.01 made short spares). One of the spare engines is today part of the flights powered by a small JATO rocket, then was later Swiss Museum of Transport, at the Flieger-Flab-Museum towed aloft for unpowered tests. It was destroyed in a Dübendorf, just east of Zürich. The Sulzer D45.04 is also crash at the Thun airfield in 1949. part of the Dübendorf museum N-20 display. The full scale aircraft, designated EFW N-20.10 Aigu- The second flying prototype, very similar in size and illon, was estimated to have a maximum speed of configuration to the powerless N-20.01, was designated 1,095 km (680 mph), but the initial converted Mamba, EFW N-20.02 Arbalète (“Crossbow”), and was powered the SM-1, which was test-flown under a de Havilland by four 0.98 kN (220 lbf) Turboméca Piméné turbojets, Mosquito in 1948 and was the first turbofan to fly, mounted above and below the wings. This aircraft first did not generate adequate thrust. Considerable further flew on November 16th, 1951. It proved to have good work was required for the definitive two-shaft SM-5 en- maneuverability and reached a maximum speed of 750 gine, which was meant to generate 14.7 kN (3,300 lbf) km/h (466 mph). thrust. The prototype was completed in 1952 and, fitted with four SM-1 engines, flew briefly during a taxi test on 8 April 1952 but the development of the engine and the N-20 aircraft was canceled soon afterwards. Both the N-20.02 Aiguillon and the N-20.10 Ar- balète airframes survive and are on public display at the Flieger-Flab-Museum, located in Dübendorf, just east of Zürich. (At the same museum are several rare, flight- worthy Junkers Ju-52 transport aircraft, perhaps the most famous design to come from TvK’s former col- league and friend from his days in Aachen, Professor Hugo Junkers.)

The second prototype was the EFW N-20.02 Arbalète (“Crossbow”), powered by four Turboméca Piméné turbojets, made its ﬁrst ﬂight in November, 1951.

The full-scale aircraft was to be powered by four turbofan engines buried in the wings, with the bypass air feeding cold-air pipes each side of the engines, being routed through a combustion chamber where additional fuel could be burned as a form of reheat, or deflected though large slots on the upper and lower wings to act N-20.02 Arbalète (left) and the first and only prototype as aerodynamic flaps or thrust reversers. Two engines N-20.10 Aiguillon, dramatic designs for the early 1950s. could be shut down in flight to increase range. It was planned that the N-20 would carry its armament in a In June 1950, following the crash of the unpow- detachable weapons bay, capable of carrying large loads ered N-20.01 glider in 1949, von Kármán received a of cannons, rockets or bombs. letter from Oberstbrigadier (Colonel) René von Watten- It was initially planned that the aircraft’s engines wyl, head of the Swiss military technical division of the would be designed and built by the Swiss company EMD, the KTA. It was clear to Wattenwyl, responsible for

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 the overall management of the N-20 project and some- When the second prototype of the YB-49 crashed in the one holding great respect for TvK’s experience with ad- Mojave Desert in June, 1948 (killing its crew of five vanced aircraft design, that there remained some seri- which included Captain Glen Edwards, for whom Ed- ous stability issues with the aircraft. In his letter, Wat- wards AFB was named), TvK learned a bitter lesson in tenwyl urged von Kármán to speak with Ackeret about the importance of making unbiased decisions in aircraft the problems during a visit planned for that July by von design. As things went, the US chose instead Convair’s Kármán and Dr. Hugh Dryden (at that time Director of massive B-36 bomber of more conventional design, with NACA) with Professor Ackeret, who was intimately in- six large radial engines driving pusher propellers, aided volved with the N-20’s development. by pairs of podded turbines hung beneath the wing near both wingtips. Von Kármán had been involved with many unusual designs, and offered the Swiss his advice. Three months after his initial discussions with Ackeret, he received a confidential letter from Richard Greinacher, an aerody- namcist and structural analyst who led the Flight Sci- ences office of the KTA in Bern where he was responsible for reviewing all design decisions related to the N- 20. Greinacher related in his letter that despite TvK’s recommendations, no significant changes were being considered for the N-20. Greinacher requested that von Kármán reiterate his concerns and suggestions in writ- ing, but not divulge Greinacher’s request he do this. Greinacher was especially concerned with the longitu- NACA chief Hugh Dryden, Theodore von Kármán and dinal stability of the N-20 prototype, especially since he Richard Greinacher, head of the Flight Sciences office of was responsible for approving all flight tests. From May the KTA in Bern, 1961. 1946 to May 1950, tests of multiple prototypes of an aircraft of very similar tailless configuration, the DeHav- Wattenwyl’s summary of TvK’s recommendations in- illand DH 108, had led to the deaths of several pilots, cluded the following: “If the possibility exists, the addi- one of whom was the son of the company’s namesake, tion of a variable horizontal stabilizer would add sig- chief test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. nificantly to the design’s safety. Such a consideration Whether TvK fulfilled Greinacher’s request was not should be made with no prejudice (neither love, nor known, but the fate of the N-20 had already been in- hate), whereby aesthetics should not play a role. Bias directly decided in 1947, when the Swiss Air Force ac- in this regard has cost Northrop a great deal of money. quired 75 modern DeHavilland Vampire jet fighters. In It would be easiest for an expert to recommend termi- 1951 they added to these 150 of its more capable deriva- nation of the project. This however would be a purely tive, the Venom. Both exhibited performance compara- negative action bringing no advantage. The test and ble to what was expected of the N-20, still years away flight results thus far have not been such that an end from production. Despite making a short flight during to work would be the only appropriate course of action. high-speed taxi tests, the first example was the only one The difficulties however should not be underestimated, built when the entire project was canceled in March of and one should expect at least four years of further work 1953 by the Swiss government at a total cost of 14 mil- until a final decision can be made on series production. lion Swiss Francs, a substantial sum in the 1950s. In summary, Professor von Kármán considers an end to One recommendation made by von Kármán that was work more or less as a ‘sin’. Due to the uncertainties re- acted upon was the parallel development of the more lated to the N-20 project, one should in parallel build an conventional P.16, a design from the FFA, based in the aircraft of conventional configuration, or at least study old Dornier facility in Altenrhein where the Rhine river this. He would have never bet everything on the N-20, flows out of the Alps into Lake Constance. (It was here but only pursued it when a second solution was also un- that Dornier had resumed flying boat construction when der development.” the Versailles Treaty outlawed most aircraft production Von Kármán had been involved only a few years be- in Germany following WWI. The massive hangars where fore on the ill-fated YB-49 project, a pure flying-wing the famous 12-engined Dornier Do-X were built are still bomber powered by eight Allison/General Electric J- standing, now home to train manufacturer Stadler Al- 35-A5 turbojet engines. Its chief proponent, company tenrhein AG.) founder Jack Northrop, who had used TvK’s wind tun- As described by Wikipedia: “The P-16 was designed nels at GALCIT in the design of his streamlined ‘Alpha’ to be especially well-suited to the close-support role, and aircraft in 1930, was convinced that the pure flying short-field performance was also emphasized. The re- wing was the most efficient configuration for an aircraft. sulting aircraft was a single-seat, single-engine design

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] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association with intakes on the fuselage sides and a low wing. The were considered instead, in particular the Lockheed F- horizontal stabilizer was mounted halfway up the fin. To 104 Starfighter, the Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger, the ensure good performance from unprepared fields, heavy French Dassault Mirage III and the Italian FIAT G.91, undercarriage and dual wheels and tires were fitted. The a design from von Kármán’s former student and close straight, low aspect ratio wing was of multi-spar con- friend, Giuseppe Gabrielli. Ultimately the Swiss chose struction with various high-lift devices including full- the Mirage, an ironic decision given its tailless, but by span Krueger flaps on the leading edge, large Fowler- the late 1950s well proven configuration. The Mirage type flaps on the inboard trailing edge, and ailerons proved to be a good aircraft, but would ultimately cost which also operated as flaps. These devices allowed the Swiss taxpayers over a billion Francs and caused a major aircraft to take off and land within 1,000 ft (330 m) at political scandal. To describe this affair would require high altitude, allowing it to operate from the Alpine val- another complete article with no relevance to TvK. leys characteristic of Switzerland. Two prototypes were ordered in 1952, the first one flying on 25 April 1955. Although this aircraft (J-3001) was destroyed in a crash on 25 April having made 22 flights with a total flight time of 12h 38min, a development contract for four pre- production aircraft was awarded. On 15 August 1956, the second prototype exceeded the sound barrier for the first time. It completed another 310 flights by March 1958 after which it was scrapped.”

This view of the P-16 shows the aircraft’s sophisticated high-lift system which allowed it to operate from relatively short runways. Every dark cloud has a silver lining though. When successful American entrepreneur William “Bill” Lear moved to Switzerland in 1960, he was already working on his next project – the development of a low-cost, The more conventional-looking P-16 outside the FFA high speed business jet. He met aircraft design engi- facility in Altenrhein. neer and former Dornier Altenrhein employee Dr. Hans- Luzius Studer, who earned his Ph.D. at the ETH and was Despite the loss of two test aircraft, the P-16 ap- considered the father of the P.16 Studer convinced Lear peared to be a promising design, but as in the case of the that the P.16, with its good short-field capabilities and N-20, aircraft from other countries were well advanced, efficient high-speed cruise performance, would serve as making continued financial support of a Swiss jet fighter the ideal basis for a small business jet. Due to the Alpine program a difficult one. Unlike Sweden, Switzerland’s terrain of Switzerland, airfield space was limited, requir- highly decentralized form of government led to rival- ing the P.16 to leave the ground quickly and climb at a ries among Cantons (states) competing for defense con- high rate of speed, perfect for a business jet. Lear formed tracts such as this one. (Emmen was in the Canton of the ‘Swiss American Aviation Corporation’ and hired a Lucerne and Altenrhein was in St. Gallen, worlds apart staff of Swiss, German, British and American engineers, in a small, mountainous country). The Cold War had lead by Studer, to work on the first design, designated just taken a new turn when, on November 4th, 1956 a the SAAC-23. Frustrated by what he considered the slow large Soviet forced invaded Hungary and crushed the pace of work in Europe, Lear moved the company and uprising within a week. To the Swiss, it was clear that its tooling to Wichita, Kansas in 1962. The first Lear- their fleet of Vampire and Venom aircraft were already jet Model 23 flew on October 7th, 1963 after a develop- outdated, and that the P.16 would not provide a sig- ment period of less than four years! Studer chose not to nificantly more capable aircraft. Support for the project move to Kansas, but instead led the development of the was canceled, the FFA was paid 100m CHF to can- German HFB-320 HansaJet, with its distinctive forward- cel a production contract, and several foreign aircraft swept wings, which made its first flight in April, 1964.

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with the development of an indigenous fighter aircraft as the Swedes had done remains debatable; rivalries between Swiss Cantons could have made this impossible. Ironically, the one Swiss aircraft manufacturer left out of the fighter project, Pilatus, supplies many military forces around the world with variants of its PC-9 turboprop trainer, including the USAF which flies a variant called the Texas II, produced under license by Textron Beechcraft in Wichita. The Learjet however went on to set the standard in business aircraft and the name lives on through its current owner, Canada’s Bombardier Aerospace. VKI grad- Early Learjet. The similarities of its wing compared to the uate Dr. Richard Tracy, now Chief Technology Officer P-16 are obvious. for the supersonic business jet-maker Aerion, served as chief engineer for Bill Lear’s LearAvia in the 1970s, where he led the advanced design of the LearStar 600, later developed as the Canadair CL-600 Challenger, a product of Bombardier today and the basis for its CRJ family of regional airliners. What makes all this the more interesting to the author is the fact that his son builds the GE Aviation CF-34 turbines that power the CRJ, based on the LearStar 600, designed by a VKI alumnus as an evolution of the original LearJet, which borrowed heavily from the FFA P.16, created by a former Dornier engineer, an airplane born from a simple recommendation to the Swiss from Theodore von Kármán not to put all their eggs in one N-20 basket. References:

A good drawing of the N-20.10 Aiguillon 1. Theodore von Kármán – Flugzeuge für die Welt und eine Stiftung für Bern, Kärin Nickelsen, Alessandra Hool, Gerd Graßhoff, 23. Juni 2004, Springer Verlag

2. Wikipedia – multiple citations

Interview with Gary Johnson, DC 1975

Only N-20.10 Aiguillon, on display at the Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf, just east of Zürich, along with the Swiss-built jet engines that powered it and the N-20.02 Arbalète.

While Theodore von Kármán was not deeply involved in any of the aircraft projects mentioned here, it by JOHN WENDT,FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI was his unequivocal warning about a potentially flawed AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA design, provided with his usual diplomacy, that helped the Swiss avoid the loss of more test pilots, as was the case in the U.S. and Great Britain as companies rushed ary, please tell our readers how you happened to through numerous advanced concepts in the transition enroll at the VKI back in the 70’s and how your to supersonic aircraft during the first decade that fol- Gstudies and research at the Institute influenced lowed WWII. Whether the Swiss should have continued your career.

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Gary receiving his diploma from Prof. Alec Young. Gary Johnson. “By 1977, I had finished most of my research – save for some remaining computations. I decided to return to “I came to VKI in 1974. My wife, Ulla, and I moved the United States, take a job, and finish up my disser- to Brussels from Hamburg, where we had been teaching in tation work there. In 1979, I returned to VKI from the the city’s school system – me: Math and Physics and Ulla: NASA Lewis Research Center (now renamed NASA Glenn English and German. Research Center) to successfully defend my thesis at ULB. “I immediately liked the atmosphere at VKI – a work- “When Ulla and I think back on our time at VKI, we ing laboratory with lots of close communication among fondly recall: learning a bit of French and Flemish; walks students, faculty and researchers. It reminded me of my in the Forêt de Soignes; swimming at the Sports Centre – earlier graduate study experience in the Guggenheim Aero- and eating the occasional croque monsieur there; going on nautical Laboratory (GALCIT) at Caltech. Perhaps this is a VKI-arranged trip to the Paris Air Show; and crawling not a coincidence, as Theodore von Kármán directed GAL- through the bowels of a Belgian coal mine (tour arranged CIT after his emigration to the United States in 1930. by Frans Breugelmans). I, in particular, remember: many “I came to VKI with a specific research agenda in interesting discussions at the VKI coffee breaks; dunking mind: I would pick up the thread of experimental work I beet sugar cubes into the coffee at those breaks; and many had done at Caltech on coherent structures in turbulence. late evening talks with Paul, the night watchman, about Those plans changed when I began the Diploma Course life and the breeding of orchids. lectures. I was fascinated by Jean Smolderen’s lectures on “Another thing we treasure from our time at VKI was Computational Fluid Dynamics. Prior to hearing them, I the opportunity to make so many international friendships had no idea that CFD was being taught as an academic dis- and to learn about cultures to which we would not other- cipline. Perhaps VKI was the first institution to do so. CFD wise have been exposed. We fondly recall many a pleasant combined my interests in mathematics and computation evening with diploma classmate Heinrich Vollmers and his with my love of fluid dynamics and the experimentalist’s wife Bärbel and a trip Ulla and I made to Istanbul during way of approaching problems. By the time the Diploma one vacation to visit with the families of Sedat Biringen Course had ended I was fully engaged in pursuing CFD re- (DC 1970-1971) and Mete ¸Sen(DC 1975-1976). search and a PhD through VKI. See if you can find me in “In 2006, Ulla and I returned to Belgium to participate the 1975 class photo below. in the VKI 50th anniversary celebration. After our long absence, it was great to see many old friends. It was also nice to see Brussels again and partake of the local specialties – among them: mussels, frites, beer, chocolates & waffles. The photo below was taken at the celebration dinner. In it I’m in deep conversation with my diploma classmate Bruno Schiavello.

Class of 1975.

Gary, we also found a photo of you receiving your Diploma from Professor Alec Young, Chairman of the th VKI Board of Directors. Gary Johnson at the the VKI 50 anniversary dinner.

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“At VKI, I discovered CFD and immediately loved it. It “and here we’re enjoying some refreshment at the Vik- became the foundation of my further career. I went on to tualienmarkt in Munich; work at United Technologies Research Center, NASA Lewis Research Center, Colorado State University, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the North Carolina Supercomput- ing Center, George Mason University and the US Depart- ment of Energy. The theme of my work has been to build on the role of CFD in fluid dynamics and catalyze similar oc- currences in other disciplines. At Colorado State, I started the first graduate program in the US focused on Compu- tational Science. While at George Mason University, I took a sabbatical to work at the White House’s Office of Sci- ence and Technology Policy on issues related to the uses of computing technology in the US education system. At the Department of Energy, I helped start DoE’s focus on computation in open science, high performance computing research centers and the education of computational scientists. “and most of all learning to be a good grandfather to “Since 2008, I have been working out of my own com- Cecilia, the latest addition to our family – shown with her pany, Computational Science Solutions, to continue to ex- dad, our son Mark, and her mom, our daughter-in-law ploit computing and networking technologies to develop Melinda. Cecilia is about four weeks old in the photos be- new directions in education, research, applications and low. outreach. “Going off into computational science has meant that I have been able to help initiate in other disciplines, the transformative effect that computation has had on aerospace. However, it has also meant that I have far fewer occasions to meet VKI alumni than if I’d stayed focused in aerospace. Fortunately, my friend and fellow alum and VKI officemate, Sedat Biringen, lives in Boulder, Colorado – about an hour’s drive from my home in Fort Collins – so we occasionally see each other (but not often enough). “My work is my passion and, as such, has also been “My professional career continues to bring me intel- my main “hobby”. Lately, I’ve branched out into garden- lectual challenges, new friendships, and lots of fun. VKI ing/landscaping (a small sample in the left photo below); - which is about 380 miles northwest of the Zugspitze, enjoying our two German Shepherds, Sophie & Heike whose summit is behind me in the photo below – has (lounging on our hillside in the right photo below); played an essential role in this.

“spending more time with Ulla – below, we’re on Pike’s “If you’d like to contact me, my email address is Peak, near Colorado Springs, about 140 miles South of [email protected] and I may be found on our home and near my undergraduate school, the US Air social media: Force Academy, shown at the right. https://www.linkedin.com/in/garymichaeljohnson https://www.facebook.com/garymichaeljohnson https://plus.google.com/107465946955832403380 https://twitter.com/GaMiJo – all friend requests from the VKI family will be gladly accepted – or at my company’s website: http://ComputationalScienceSolutions.com.” Thanks, Gary, for producing this interview which I am sure will inspire our younger alumni as they plan

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 23 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association their future careers and will certainly bring back mem- of Prof. Juan Pedro Solano Fernandez, a former VKI DC ories of life at VKI and in Brussels to our older alumni. (2003-04) member; All the best wishes for further success. Giulia Dell’Era (TU Dept.), for a one-month stay in April at the “Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et Acoustique - LMFA” of the École Centrale de Lyon, The VKI-AA 2016 Research Travel France, in the research group of Dr. Xavier Ottavy, on Grants the subject of unsteady phenomena in a high-speed, low pressure compressor stage, experimentally investigated in the VKI R-4 facility using time-resolved measurement techniques, the purpose being to complete the data by a modal analysis conducted using the LMFA software, to be adapted to the R-4 facility; Charline Fouchier (EA Dept), ), for a one-week stay (a short period as imposed by a strict controlled access procedure) at the French research centre of Gra- by MARIO CARBONARO,VKIHONORARY DIRECTORAND mat, of the “Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux PROFESSOR Énergies Alternatives (CEA)”, to participate in tests of explosions in simulated complex urban and industrial his year the call for applications to the VKI Alumni environments, to determine effects on dispersion of pol- Association Research Travel Grant was particu- lutants and chemicals, as well as on blast wave over- Tlarly successful: seven candidates were interested, pressure, the purpose being to compare large scale ex- instead of only two last year. Furthermore, all applica- periments to the small scale experiment conducted last tions were of high quality, and this posed a hard prob- year at the VKI; lem to the Grant Selection Committee. Normally the three best applications have to be selected for funding; stretching this custom, we imagined that four candidates could be funded, as last year only two grants were awarded; however, this left the Committee with the task of choosing those that would not be funded. No real criteria were found to rank the candidates due to a number of close ties, leading to the feeling that such ranking and resulting exclusions would be highly un- fair. On the other hand, these close ties are a very good indication of the excellent qualification of the VKI PhD candidates. Finally, Claus Sieverding saved the Commit- tee from this dilemma, by arguing that the real limit was the maximum amount allotted by the Board, i.e. 3300e, not the number of grantees; and if we were funding only the travel and lodging expenses, as the candidates Recipients of the 2016 VKI-AA RTG. would save their living expenses in Belgium when going abroad, up to six candidates could be funded. Gian Luca Gori (TU Dept.), for a one-month stay in Of course this was a change compared to what had April at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, on the been announced, and clearly had to be approved by application of a two-colour Laser Induced Fluorescence the members of the executive Board. They were con- technique using toluene as tracer, a technique developed sulted by mail to seek their approval, and they unani- by the research group of Profs. Christof Schulz and Se- mously endorsed the proposal of sharing the available bastian Kaiser, coupled with PIV, to determine unsteady amount among more than three candidates. Indeed, we temperature and velocity fields, thence turbulent ther- felt that all candidates would prefer getting a reduced mal diffusivity, to be implemented afterwards at the VKI amount, rather than taking the risk of not getting any- for application to the optimization of cooling channels thing. Therefore, the Committee unanimously decided in turbine blades; to award the Research Travel Grants to six PhD candi- Miguel Mendez (EA Dept), for a one-month stay in dates: April-May at École Centrale de Nantes, France, on the Cernat Bogdan (TU Dept.), for a one month stay in subject of gas jet impingement on a vertically falling September at the U. Polytechnic of Cartagena, Spain, on liquid film, for which instability mechanisms have been the subject of active tip leakage flow control in turbines, studied experimentally at the VKI since several years us- using micro-fluidic, piezo-electric or electromechanical ing time-resolved PIV and quantitative flow visualiza- actuators, to conduct numerical simulations in the group tion, and for which the advanced code developed by the

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 24 - 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 research group of Prof. Thierry Coupez at Nantes will th be used to reproduce numerically the VKI experiments, Celebration of VKI’s 60 such code remaining available for other VKI researchers Anniversary afterwards; PRELIMINARY PROGRAM Alessia Simonini (EA Dept), (EA Dept), for a two- TH month stay during the period May to August at the Uni- FRIDAY OCTOBER 14 , 2016 versity of Bristol, UK, in the group of Prof. Raf Theunis- 10:00 Alumni visit of the VKI laboratories sen, a former VKI DC (2003-04) and PhD (2010) and 12:00 Sandwich Lunch specialist on PIV image processing algorithms, on the 13:30 VKI-AA General Assembly subject of non-intrusive optical measurement techniques 15:00 Break and welcoming of invited external guests and specialized image analysis algorithms to track the 15:30 Academic Session moving surface between liquid and gas phases, for appli- 15:30 Welcome Address – Review of the research cation to the sloshing of cryogenic fuels in tanks under at VKI from 2006-2016 microgravity conditions. Jean Muylaert, VKI We wish to all of them a fruitful experience, and look 16:00 ESA and IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) Activities forward in publishing in future VKI-AA newsletters the Giorgio Tumino, ESA, The Netherlands articles that they are requested to write about their stay 16:30 Impact of Nanotechnologies on Fluid Dynamics in the foreign lab selected. Research Pierre Proulx, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada 17:00 CFD and High Performance Computing Christian Cord-Rossow, DLR, Germany 17:30 European Cleansky project Jean-François Brouckaert, Cleansky, Belgium

18:00 Cocktail Party

19:30 Alumni Dinner Kasteel Gravenhof Alsembergsesteenweg 676, 1653 Dworp

OPENDAYON SATURDAY OCTOBER 15TH , 2016

11:00–16:00 Visit of Laboratories 18:00 – . . . Aperitif and BBQ for VKI Personnel, Students and Alumni

Kasteel Gravenhof

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 25 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter Technical/Manuscript Editor: Mehmet Mersinligil B [email protected]