Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association ISSUE 25, JULY 2018 in This Issue

Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association ISSUE 25, JULY 2018 In This Issue:

From the Editors ...... 1 VKI DC 1987-1988 30 Year Gathering ...... 14

A New VKI Faculty Member: VKI Alumni Dinner at the ASME Turbo Expo 2018 Delphine Laboureur ...... 2 Conference in Oslo ...... 15

The 52nd Graduation Ceremony, Interview with Luca Casarsa ...... 17 June 29, 2018 ...... 3 VKI Student Trip to DLR and ETW in Köln Porz- From Blue to Green ...... 5 Wahn ...... 19

Hypersonics: from Peenemünde to Rhode-Saint- The VKI-AA Research Travel Grants 2018 ...... 20 Genèse ...... 6 Where are they and what are they doing: From Research to Museum ...... 10 Loïs Labarrère ...... 22

From the Editors Belgian colleagues, friends, alumnae & alumni - our- selves included, of course, understandably except our French and English friends and colleagues, especially because France and Belgium met in the semi finals and England and Belgium even met twice in the tournament - became supporters of the Belgian team! Firstly because the Belgian team was really performing very well, sec- ondly because Belgium was our home for all of us for at least 9 months. We are happy that Belgium reached by HANS-PETER DICKMANN, DC 1987 rank 3 and that the special world cup situation resulted AND EDITOR,EUROPE in strong support to the Belgian team from many VKI AND JOHN WENDT,FORMER DIRECTOROFTHE VKI alumnae and alumni all over the world. AND EDITOR,NORTH AMERICA And what about this newsletter? It is already the 25th - and we hope that you will enjoy reading about ummer is the time when it is too hot to do the the recent accomplishments of the Institute, its students job that it was too cold to do last winter. (Mark and alumni. For example: Delphine Laboureur, the VKI’s Twain). We were reminded of this quotation be- S newest faculty member; the exciting restoration of a cause we started the last letter from the editors at a time MIG-21 for a Belgian Air Force base; the wartime history when it was extremely cold and now it is extremely hot. of the H-1 hypersonic wind tunnel; the latest graduation Don’t worry: We know better than to write about the ceremony; meetings of alumni at various scientific con- weather. Our subject for this letter is even more serious: ferences, and visits by the students to other laboratories We are going to write about football or soccer instead! including prolonged stays at foreign institutions as part We strongly assume that most of our readers enjoyed of the Alumni Association’s Research Travel grants pro- watching the matches at the World Cup 2018 in Russia. gram. We are happy to see that a group of students at OK, some, very surprisingly, could not see their national VKI cares about sustainability and has decided to take team playing at all; others had just three games to watch positive actions which can significantly reduce waste of until they noticed that their team was already prepar- energy and material. So, we suggest that you find a coming its flight home (like Hans-Peter). But then we made fortable chair in a quiet space and spend the next hour a very special observation: Many of our former non- reading our 25th publication. 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

A New VKI Faculty Member: helped me to strongly improve my skills as a researcher Delphine Laboureur and further developed my love and interest for safety. Then, in 2015, I came back to VKI to work as a research engineer, a position that I kept until April of this year, when I was happily promoted to assistant professor. But I never really left MKOPSC since I have been an adjunct faculty member there since 2016 and still currently mentor five PhD students. At VKI, my research interests are related to safety by DELPHINE LABOUREUR, DC 2007 and industrial processes. My relation with CEA Gramat VKIASSISTANT PROFESSOR during my PhD helped to continue working with them now with the SCUD project, acronym for Scaled Urban ear Alumnae, Dear Alumni, Dear Friends of the Detonation and Dissemination, consisting of a scaled ex- von Karman Institute, it is with pleasure and pride perimental investigation of overpressure generated by Dthat I’d like to introduce myself as the new assis- the detonation of explosives in an urban environment, tant professor in the Environmental and Applied fluid and the effects of pollutants on the explosion. This re- dynamics department of the von Karman Institute. But I search requires expertise in blast pressure measurement am not new at VKI since my love story with this institute as well as development of optical quantitative measure- goes back to 2005. ment techniques. Also related to safety, I am in charge of For those who don’t know me, I graduated as a me- the certification of a new VKI facility, the SHAKESPEARE chanical engineer at the Université Catholique de Lou- shake table for ISO17025 norm applied to IEC60068- vain in 2006. That is where I discovered VKI since my 3-3 (seismic testing), which is part of the Democritos master thesis was on the experimental investigation of II project, a joint venture involving the Nuclear Re- the Taylor flow, typical in Ariane 5 boosters. I then fi- search Centre SCK-CEN in Mol, Belgium, and the VKI. nalized this research topic during my Research Master The acronym DEMOCRITOS stands for "Demonstration (Diploma Course at the time), which I ended with hon- of Myrrha Operation and CRITical Objects for Safety", ors and the prize of excellence in experimental research. where Myrrha is the Belgian prototype of an innovative subcritical nuclear reactor, driven by fast neutrons, and I then left VKI to work during one year as a customer cooled by a molten lead-bismuth alloy. service engineer at LMS International. But my love for VKI and research was too strong, so I came back and started a PhD funded by the "Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique" (CEA) in Gramat, France, on experimental characterization and modeling of hazards: BLEVE and Boilover. During that PhD, I performed laboratory scale experiments of BLEVE, acronym for "Boiling Liquid Ex- panding Vapour Explosion" and Boilover (an explosive phenomenon occurring during the fight against hydro- carbon fires), to better understand the criteria for ap- pearance and consequences of these accidents. I also modeled the phenomena and their hazards based on comparison of the experimental results with literature models. After graduating from the Université Libre de Brux- elles in 2012, I worked one year as a postdoc in VKI working on optimization of industrial processes for Delphine Laboureur, after successful field test and then Michelin, and then left VKI another time to work as presenting results at a conference a research assistant at the Mary Kay O’Connor Pro- cess Safety Center (MKOPSC) at Texas A&M University. But I also work on the NanoAppli project of the Wal- The position consisted in writing proposals for funding loon Region, modeling of the initial oxidation of alu- research, working with graduate students on their re- minum nanoparticles to improve the efficiency of the search as well as overseeing their day-day duties for passivation sequence for the MARS production line of their dissertation/thesis research, developing presenta- the Belgian company Nanopôle , developing an acceler- tions on specific process safety engineering topics and ated ageing model for aluminum nanoparticles, with or representing the research center at professional meet- without coating; and measuring the particle size distri- ings to industry and other interested groups. That time bution of the nanoparticles online, during the full pro- 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association duction process, using a coherent light extinction tech- But he insisted also on the fact that VKI was important nique. for NATO, that NATO needed VKI to continue providing leading edge technology. He pointed to the fact that of Finally, I work with the "Centre Technique des In- the 29 Nations only 14 support financially the Institute, dustries Mecaniques" (CETIM),France, on the CHyCAgO which is already something but not enough. Striving for project, acronym for Comportement Hydraulique d’une the best is one means to attract more countries for the Cuve Agitée Optimisée, which consists of the design international funding of the VKI. and construction of a middle-scale mixing tank allowing refractive index matching techniques, Stereo-PIV measurements in a solid-liquid or gas-liquid mixing tank. Up to now, I have published around 15 journal papers and 20 conference papers. But at VKI, I did not only do research during all these years. I was part of the VKI band HuGe Bells during my PhD and postdoc years, and I was and still am part of the dessert team during the annual VKI BBQ celebrating the end of the research master year. I am currently on maternity leave since my second child Martin was born on April 20th. However, starting from September, I will come back to VKI and prepare myself to start my first year of research master as a professor, which I look forward to. I strongly believe in VKI, in its value of teaching re- VKI Director Peter Grognard search through research, and on the family aspect of the institute, and I am deeply honored to have been chosen Dr. Orkun Temel, postdoctoral researcher in the En- to represent VKI in its faculty, and to help implement vironmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics Department the changes that are starting now, together with the fac- presented as scientific highlight of the year the interest- ulty and the new Director. I also am happy to restart the ing subject "Weather prediction on Mars applied to at- female component of the faculty, after the departure of mospheric methane transport: a study for the Exo/Mars Professor Rosaria Vetrano. Mission". I look forward to meeting and working with you, The address to the students was delivered by Dr. members of the VKI community, in the coming weeks, Georgios Symeonidis of the European Research Coun- months and years. cil Executive Agency. George entitled his enlightening speech: "A small-dish potpourri of experiences, memories and prompts". Having graduated from the Diploma Course in the AR department in 1985 he was faced in The 52nd Graduation Ceremony, that summer with the dilemma to choose between re- June 29, 2018 turning to his Greek home or following his dream of continuing to carry out aerospace research in an inter- he session was opened by the VKI Director Pe- national environment. Already in those years VKI had ter Grognard welcoming the guests, the employ- some unique facilities, the large L-1 tunnel, the CT3 an- Tees of the VKI, the students and their families. Mr. nular Cascade facility (then being developed) and his fa- Grognard referred briefly to the recent turbulent past of vorite facility, the Longshot. It was the time of important the Institute and assured everybody that at present the evolutions in measurement techniques and computer VKI was sailing towards a more secure future thanks to equipment. As regards the latter George remembered the support of the Belgian government, the supporting still punching cards to feed the mainframe computer, NATO countries and the efforts of the VKI employees. before the advent of workstations and finally personal Mr. Sven van Loo, Chairman of the von Karman Institute computers. Without remote access to the computers, Board of Directors expressed also his gratitude for the students’ extracurricular activities and social lives were support of the Belgian government helping the Institute often beginning and ending at the Institute’s "architec- to make it more effective. On behalf of NATO, the Bel- tural masterpiece building" (i.e. the prefabricated "pro- gian Ambassador Francis de Kerckhove d’Exacerde, the visional" but everlasting building of the computer cen- permanent representative of Belgium at NATO, warned ter) - returning casually in the (late) evening to check if that in spite of the efforts already made the situation the computer program was still running and this to the of the VKI was still fragile, and that further enormous great delight of Spyros, the Institute’s cat whose favorite efforts were required to fully restore a stable situation. place was on top of the bulky computer screens. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

multidisciplinary approaches, a more cooperative and collaborative scientiﬁc culture is sorely needed and that we are going to have to work together to make science more collaborative. Then came the important moment of the delivery of the diplomas to the RM students, starting with the presentation of the awards:

Address to the students by Dr. Giorgios Symeonidis

But besides the research what made VKI attractive was what George called the "People" (the heart, the brain, the skill and the tradition) of the Institute: the permanent members (profs., staff), the students and the "fast-track passers-by" (visitors, lecturers, stagiaires). Greek dances and cooking, outdoor and indoor sports, excursions and explorations were favorites in the stu- VKI Chairman Sven van Loo giving von Karman Prize to dents’ social life. Andrea Fagnani Spending eight years at VKI, from 1984-1992, was - the Theodore von Karman Prize to Andrea Fagnani, an extraordinary experience which in scientific terms re- U. of Firenze, Italy sulted in the most voluminous PhD thesis ever written at - the Belgian Government Prize to Tom de Bruyn, KU VKI. Leuven. Belgium Beyond the scientific aspect the period was exciting - the Prince Alexandre of Belgium Award for Best because of important changes at the level of the evo- Presentation to Athanasios Margaritis, U. of Thessa- lution of the European Institutions: the change of the loniki, Greece EEC to the EU, the Schengen Agreement, the Maas- - the award for Excellence in Experimental Research tricht Treaty, and, very importantly, the first European to Domenico Fiorini, U. of Firenze, Italy research programs. - the award for Excellence in Numerical Work to After almost 20 years working for the Greek air- Adrien Chatel, U. of Mons, Belgium craft industry George returned in 2015 to Brus- The presentation of the awards for outstanding sci- sels where he joined the European Research Coun- entific performance was followed by the presentation of cil (ERC) Executive Agency as Project Advisor. The the "Award for Best Collaboration" presented by Profes- ERC (https://erc.europa.eu/) promotes special research sor Mario Carbonaro on behalf of the VKI Alumni Associ- projects characterized by: 1 researcher, 1 host institute, ation, this year exceptionally to two students nominated 1 project. The only condition to access this type of fund- ex aequo by their class mates: ing is EXCELLENCE. More recently, the Synergy grant - Athanasios Margaritis, Greece scheme has also been (re)launched, allowing 2-4 re- - David Henneaux, Belgium searchers to work together on a single project. It is worthwhile noting that the speech of Professor In this context the speaker broached the very inter- Carbonaro was exactly in line with what was said before esting subject of competitive science referring to an ed- by Dr. Symeonides concerning the competitiveness in re- itorial by Ferric C. Fang and Arturo Casadevall "Com- search. Personal recognition of your scientific work is of petitive Science: Is Competition Ruining Science?". The course important but keeping your ideas and discoveries authors draw attention to the adverse effect of hyper- for yourself will lead to a situation of isolation and as a competition whereby scientists must work in an environ- result you will not benefit from the ideas and discoveries ment of relentless time pressure and insecurity which of your colleagues. The sharing of talents, views, ideas, is counterproductive to good science and conclude that competencies and knowledge of many actors is the ba- with the emergence of team science and the need for sis for innovative and efficient research. The "Award for 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Best Collaboration" is an invitation and an encourage- vehicles or improving the operating conditions and efﬁ- ment to make collaboration and team spirit a character- ciency of wind turbines, we are excited and motivated istic of VKI students. to work in such a world-wide renowned Institute where we are given a chance to show our work and our worth without any obstacles!

In fact, since VKI is so good in fundamental and industrial research, why not also in sustainability? At VKI, our main (or only) focus has always been our research work, but seeing that we spend (at least!) one third of our day at the Institute, we feel that it is crucial, especially nowadays, to reduce our environmental impact as part of this institution.

We decided then to speak to Laura Peveroni (RM 2012, presently VKI Research Engineer) and she not Professor Carbonaro VKI-AA Award for best collaboration only shared our concern but also took us to the CPPT to Thanos Margaritis (Committee on Prevention and Protection in the Work- place) meeting to allow us to propose some alternatives Professor Herman Deconink, Dean of the Faculty, an- to improve the environmental sustainability of VKI. nounced then the names of the PhD students who received during the academic year the Doctor’s degree. A total of eleven degrees were awarded to students who This was a very happy moment for us, we were heard presented their theses at 10 different universities in six and we got support: we were not the only ones who different countries. were preoccupied with this subject, we just took the time Professor Deconink, on behalf of VKI, and Professor to expose this problematic. In particular, Raimondo Gi- Carbonaro, on behalf of the VKI Alumni Association of- ammanco (DC 2000, presently Head of the Computer fered then jointly the award for the Best Presentation of Center) has been a great collaborator and gave very the annual PhD symposium to Zdenˇek Ilich, Czech Re- good ideas. He also suggested and then opened a VKI public. wiki page for us to inform sustainability practices at work; and this without ﬁrst ﬁlling a ticket! The ceremony closed with the "Vote of Thanks to the Guests" delivered by Anasthasios Margaritis and David Hennaux. As usual the presentation recalled the suffer- We continued to work on more measures to reach a ings and joys of an exceptional year in the life of the RM greener VKI, but then we realized: will they think we are students. just two crazy people that instead of working on our PhD are looking into some environmental stuff? Well, we did Claus Sieverding, DC 1965 pay attention to the project planning and management VKI Honorary Professor classes of Professor Carbonaro but still we wanted to be a team, we knew we were not the only ones concerned. From Blue to Green In fact, we are a lot!

Setting a meeting with the other PhD candidates and post-doc students, we had a really good time sharing and discussing ideas: we have become since then a kind of Green VKI team that dedicates their free time, i.e. outside of working hours, in a voluntary and non- remunerated manner, to the environmental sustainabil- by TANIA FERREIRA, RM 2016 ity of the institute. NICOLAS COUDOU, RM 2015 We are now a group of around 20 people working veryday, working in VKI, we are focused on our towards reducing the plastic usage and paper waste, in- research, our experiments and our coding to ob- creasing the paper recycling, transitioning to the use of Etain the most reliable results with the most efﬁ- printing recycled paper, improving the mobility to VKI cient method possible. Whether in reducing the fuel con- by bicycle and carpooling, having a good sorting of the sumption of aero-engines, reducing the drag of ground waste and providing vegetarian options in the canteen. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Hypersonics: from Peenemünde to Rhode-Saint-Genèse

Zero meeting catalyzer. From left to right: Chocolate by MARIO CARBONARO, DC 1968 brownies and vegan lemon cake VKIHONORARY DIRECTORAND PROFESSOR

hen I arrived at the VKI in 1967 to follow the Diploma Course, I saw for the first time two hy- Wpersonic facilities: The Mach 6 blow down wind tunnel H-1 and the Mach 14-24 piston-driven Longshot. Indeed, at the Politecnico di Torino, where I graduated as aeronautical engineer, I had heard about hypersonic facilities, but had not seen them, as the only wind tunnels existing there were a subsonic wind tunnel, with a 3-meter diameter test section and speed up to 90 m/s, quite similar to the VKI L-1A, but reaching a higher speed, and a supersonic Mach 2 wind tunnel, almost identical to the VKI S-1, however with a more power- ful drive, 4000 HP instead of 1000. (Unfortunately this Distributed paper recycling boxes. Design by: Ludovico supersonic tunnel suffered a loss-of lubricant accident Zanus (RM 2016) and Ivan Padilla in 1979, is non-operational since then, and plans are to dismantle or to donate it). Our baseline goal is to create a Green Office (GO, http://www.greenofficemovement.org/) in VKI (as it The VKI Longshot had been bought in the US by is present in the universities of Brussels, Leuven and former VKI Director Robert O. Dietz, who returning to Ghent) which would enable the VKI community inter- the US for his summer holidays in 1966, heard that fol- ested in sustainability to realize, in their free time, their lowing the bankruptcy of Republic Aviation their facili- own ideas through research, education and operations. ties were being sold, and managed to have some hun- We have applied to the creators of the GO model that has dreds of Longshot parts packed and sent in boxes to won the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustain- the VKI, where they were assembled under the super- able Development in 2015 and we hope that forming a vision of Professor Bryan Richards, as described in an GO will further enable our effort in turning our working article in VKI-AA NL24. I remember that during my DC environment into a better place for us and for the future year, 1967-68, another DC student, Claudio Parazzoli, generations! We would be happy to hear from you on supervised by Professor Bryan Richards, wrote the first how we can make VKI greener! Stay tuned! computer program to describe the Longshot operation ... besides initiating me to sailing, and trying to kill me by convincing me to climb cliffs along the Meuse river (I indeed fell and found myself suspended at the end of rope, oscillating at about 50 meters above the rocky ground).

The VKI H-1 hypersonic wind tunnel has a longer history, going back to World War II. When I arrived at the VKI, I learned that it came from Germany, where the American troops, arriving in Kochel, Bavaria (the Rus- sian troops were advancing too, but the Americans ar- An initial design of our future green office logo. rived first) found a number of supersonic tunnels, and a 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association hypersonic wind tunnel test section. They disassembled A4, renamed V2 when it became operational for London and packed them all, and took them to the USA in Jan- bombings, under the technical direction of Dr. Wern- uary 1946. All these Kochel tunnels were then installed her von Braun, with Dr. Rudolph Hermann and Herman at the Naval Ordnance Labs (NOL). Kurzweg respectively as Director and Assistant Director. (Herman Kurzweg was the person to whom Bob Korkegi The 12 cm x 12 cm test section of the hypersonic asked in 1957 whether we could have the hypersonic tunnel coming from Kochel was installed at NOL with test section at the VKI). The Peenemünde facilities were variable inclination straight nozzle walls for variable a 40 cm by 40 cm Mach 2.5 wind tunnel, operational in Mach numbers from 5 to 8 and renamed Aeroballistic 1938, and another Mach 3.3 similar one, operational in Tunnel No.4, which became operational in May 1950. 1941 to complete the aerodynamic development of the The original Kochel test section was replaced in 1958 V2 missile. Mach 4.4 was attained in 1942, and the aero- (or 1959?) by another one, and through the initiative of dynamic development of the A-9 missile, a forerunner of Dr. Robert Korkegi, former VKI Technical Director from the ICBM’s, was completed. In 1943 another 18 cm by 1957 to 1964, the original German test section was do- 18 cm continuous supersonic tunnel was put into opera- nated to the von Karman Institute (at that time named tion. After the bombing of Peenemünde by the British in TCEA, Training Centre for Experimental Aerodynamics). August 1943, which did not damage the facilities, as the It is worthwhile to reproduce here the text of a letter, ad- purpose was to neutralize the scientific elites, all facili- dressed by Bob Korkegi on 19 May 1992 to John Wendt, ties were disassembled and moved to Kochel, Bavaria, Director of the VKI from 1990 to 1999: out of reach of the allied bombers, where they were "Dear John, again operational in November 1944. Sam Hastings con- tinues reporting that the US Army occupied Kochel in Your letter brought back a lot of memories of early days May 1945, just ahead of the Russians, and then in July at VKI (then TCEA). I also enjoyed reading Sam Hastings’ 1945 the custody of the Kochel facilities was awarded to note which you enclosed, on the development of the NOL the US Navy by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Custody was (now NSWC) wind tunnels. then passed to the Bureau of Ordnance of Naval Opera- The direct answer to your letter is that the original tion, and after to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, and by test section of tunnel H-1 was indeed the actual wedge January 1946 the four Kochel facilities were received in nozzle and variable throat diffuser that had come from the US. Furthermore in February 1946 nine key German Kochel, moved to NOL after WWII and used in its Aerobal- Scientists, among which were Herman Kurzweg and Pe- listic Tunnel No.4; thence shipped back to Europe to VKI ter Wegener, were transferred from Kochel to NOL to in 1958 or 1959. I am pretty sure it was the world’s first assist in the installation of the facilities. hypersonic tunnel (in which they had tremendous oxygen condensation shocks before realizing that heating was required). How VKI acquired the test section may be of interest, When I was planning the design of a hypersonic wind tunnel at TCEA in 1957 I learned from Herman Kurzweg that NOL was building a new test section for its Tunnel No.4 and, hence the old Kochel test section was no more in use. I asked Herman if we could have it. This led to a chain of events which included transfer of title of the test section from the Navy to the US Air Force, airlifting by USAF transport to Chateauroux, France, thence our trucking it to Rhode-St-Genèse. Having a test section around which to build a hypersonic tunnel made it easier for me to obtain funding to the tune of $ 88,000 from General Larkin’s Mil- itary weapons Development Team in Paris to construct the facility. Photographs of the tunnel with the wedge nozzle The VKI H-1 hypersonic wind tunnel in 1963 installed are given in TCEA TM 15, March 1963. I’ll stop here before I get carried away with reminiscences ..." When transferred to the VKI in 1957 or 1958, the hypersonic test section was fitted with a compressed air The other document mentioned by Bob Korkegi, en- supply at 40 bar, heated up to 500 degrees centigrade to titled "the NSWC/WOL Wind Tunnels, a chronology", by avoid oxygen liquefaction during expansion, and con- Sam Hastings, dated August 1979, relates the great deal densation shocks, and with an ejector to create the nec- of activity for the development of supersonic tunnels essary vacuum. The result became the first VKI hyper- in Germany, with the establishment of the Peenemunde sonic intermittent tunnel, renamed VKI H-1. It is shown Rocket Development Station on the Baltic Sea. The pur- in the pictures here shown, dated 1963, where the su- pose was to develop a "long-range" guided missile, the personic nozzle with variable inclination straight nozzle 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association walls for Mach numbers from 5 to 8 and the two round VKI-designed contoured nozzle was kept in display, and observation windows can be seen. the other parts of the VKI H-1 tunnel were kept in use for operation of the new VKI H-3 (... the reader might won- der why the numbering jumped from H-1 to H-3, where was an H-2 lost? When and if I will find out, then I shall write another article ...). The original German straight wedge diverging walls were also luckily kept, and we are presently debating whether they should or not be mounted again in the test section displayed, to restore it to the original German design.

The VKI H-1 ejector in 1963

This VKI Hypersonic Tunnel H-1 was then modified in 1963-64 to replace the straight wedge diverging walls by a two-dimensional contoured nozzle for a uniform flow at Mach 5.3, shown in the other picture. At the same occasion the upstream window was closed: it was useful with the straight walls nozzle, to allow an intermediate part of the conical flow to be seen, but not any- more with the contoured nozzle, as the flow would not be parallel at that intermediate location as it should be The VKI H-1 contoured nozzle in 1964 at the end of the contoured nozzle.

However, one basic question remained: was the hypersonic test section designed, constructed and operated at Peenemünde or at Kochel? For a long time, this debate remained open at the VKI, we did not know, and in the book about the VKI history, written by Professor Jean Ginoux at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the VKI, it is said (erroneously, as I found out later) that the test section was designed at Kochel. Finally, when discussing this question with an American lecturer at a VKI lecture series at the VKI, I was told that I should look into the book "the Peenemünde Wind Tunnels, a Mem- oir", Yale University Press, 1996, written by Peter We- gener, a German physicist and military officer referred to earlier, who emigrated to the US after WWII under The VKI H-1 wedge nozzle in 1963 the "Project Paperclip", and who later became a professor at Yale university. In February 2004, I bought the The VKI H-1 hypersonic tunnel with contoured noz- book ... and I found the answer: the hypersonic test sec- zle was thus operational from 1964, but around the end tion was designed, built and operated in Peenemünde, of the decade, its use was much reduced, as another by Siegfried Erdmann, in 1944, after the allied bombing, hypersonic tunnel (the VKI H-3, sharing with the VKI just before moving the facilities to Kochel. On 17 April H-1 the same air supply and vacuum system, and lo- 1944 he obtained what is believed to be the world-first cated at the present position of the Plasmatron), with Schlieren picture of flow at Mach 8.8. It is instructive a more convenient open jet vacuum chamber than the to see in the reproduction here below, how the shock VKI H-1, had been constructed and became operational waves originating at the conical nose of the model are in 1969. Thus the VKI H-1 wind tunnel was disassem- very much inclined, very close to the cone surface, just bled in 1981 to reorganize the VKI hypersonic lab. The leading to interaction with the cone boundary layer and rectangular 12 cm x 12 cm test section incorporating the resulting entropy layer. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

was launched vertically, so that it would fall down close to the launching point, and twelve German officers and observers, including von Braun, Hermann and Wegener, were placed in a circle on a platform tower close to the launching point, with the assignment to look at the sky and to shout if they were seeing the V2 coming down ... but Peter Wegener was placed on the wrong side, so he saw nothing, just heard somebody shouting and when he turned back the V2 had already exploded, and not much was learned from the experiments. Another test was conducted, in eastern Poland. The residents of a village were evacuated, and the V2 missile was aimed at the steeple of the church in the selected village. Since in- stinctively it was not believed that the missile would exactly hit the target, the observers, including von Braun, were positioned ... on the steeple itself! Several missiles were fired, some exploded before hitting the ground, none hit the steeple (... hopefully von Braun remained alive ...) but again not much was gained from the ex- Mach 8.8 Schlieren taken at Peenemünde in 1944 periment. The cure was eventually found, and the V2’s hitting London were coming down silently at supersonic The book by Peter Wegener is historically very inter- speed, exploding on the target before their sound could esting, and full of details, including some amusing anec- be heard ... a difference to the noisy V1 flying bombs, dotes: he relates that in 1946 when he was brought to propelled by the world’s first operational pulse-jet, so the US under the "Project Paperclip", the newest code as long as one was hearing the frightening motorcycle- name for the program to bring German scientists to the type noise "ta-ta-ta-ta" one was safe, had only to worry US; he and his German fellows were interrogated, based when the noise was stopping, because it meant the V1 on questionnaires they had filled out. One question was was coming down silently (Jean-Louis Hauchart, a for- about religion, he had put "none", and the interrogat- mer very well appreciated industrial engineer at the VKI ing officer, after some discussion, suggested that he had who regretfully passed away in 1980, and who was a to write "protestant" in the form ... The other point con- kid during WWII, did watch them and told me this ...). cerned his political past in Germany, as he had to join the Nazi student organization as a requirement for matric- Concerning the Peenemünde bombing, Peter We- ulation at the German university, and the Hitler Youth gener describes it in a ten-page long chapter of his book. membership at the boarding school, but the interrogat- He says that at that occasion he was on a night-shift testing officer suggested him to state that "he was forced by ing, which was interrupted by the air-raid sirens, every- the school to join". Finally, he was questioned whether body ran out of the buildings, and the day after they saw he had ever been a member of an organization whose that the facilities buildings were "luckily" intact, just a aim was the overthrow of the US government. He of lot of houses were completely destroyed ... but this trig- course answered yes, to the consternation of his inter- gered the decision to move the hypersonic facilities to viewer. He then went on pointing out that the German Kochel, Bavaria. Air Force, the Luftwaffe, of which he had been a mem- However, the Peenemünde scientist, Siegfried Erd- ber, was indeed an organization whose obvious aim was mann, who after WWII chose not to emigrate to the US, the destruction of the United States. He says that this despite the invitations of Wernher von Braun, but rather statement was not taken seriously ... so that he was re- to go to the Netherlands, where he eventually became leased and taken to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at professor at University of Delft, decided to prepare a White Oak, Maryland. final grand experiment before the last tunnel of Peen- Another anecdote relates to the testing of the V2 mis- emünde was dismantled. Quoting again Peter Wegener: sile. The first prototypes were exploding in the air, at "More or less on his initiative, he wanted to achieve a about 1000 to 1500 meters above the ground, before flow close to nine times the speed of sound. He intended to reaching the target, because of the ignition for unknown replace the entire test section of the last remaining large reasons of some fuel and oxygen remaining in the tanks tunnel with a special box that could take the high pres- and piping leading to the combustion chambers. The ki- sure and house a nozzle designed for Mach 8.8, and set up netic heating of the V2 skin during its fall, understood to everything for the first-ever hypersonic flow experiment". exceed 700 C at Mach 4, was suspected to be the cause, Thus the test section presently at the VKI was fabri- and cooling by conduction or radiation was difficult to cated at Peenemünde. estimate. In order to find out a test was conducted: a V2 "The highest possible pressure ratio across the noz- 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association zle was achieved by evacuating the downstream vacuum moved the documents in a bag, concealed them under sphere to the limit the remaining pump could achieve, and spare tires and tools in their car, and destroyed the von by supplying the nozzle with air at 90 atmospheres. The Braun permit. Then, because General Keitel on the same flow of brief duration looked perfect as viewed via the opti- day issued general orders prohibiting the use of any civil- cal system. Beautiful photographs of the flow about wedge- ian car that used gasoline, the Kochel group drove home shaped models, cylinders, spheres and other simple shapes at night without lights. Kochel scientists microfilmed the were taken, photographs that looked just as one would ex- documents and secured them in various places in sealed pect from gas dynamics theory". metal boxes. Meanwhile, the SS loaded the documents still in the complex at the Mittelwerk into trucks and dumped After this, all Peenemünde equipment was moved to these trucks into the shaft of a salt mine." Kochel, then to the US and put into operation at NOL, as One of the participants in such clandestine activity explained. Peter Wegener relates the experiments con- later wrote: ducted in the hypersonic section, which became oper- "We were scientists and not fighting people. We could ational in May 1950, in an article from the Journal of not understand the senseless destruction of scientific equip- Aeronautical Sciences, Vol 18, No 10, p665, October ment with which we had made so many important investi- 1951, entitled "Summary of recent experimental inves- gations in the supersonic field during the last years. It was tigations in the NOL hyperballistics wind tunnel No.4". absolutely of no use to anyone in Germany if we should In another article entitled "The 1x1 m hypersonic burn all the results of our scientific work. If we did so, wind tunnel Kochel/Tullahoma 1940-1960", based on a we would fall back in our field several years. It was not presentation made at the DGLR Annual Conference in clear at this time which one of the hostile armies would Augsburg, Germany, 16-18 Sept. 2014, Dietrich Eckardt, occupy Kochel. However, all efforts were made to save as a former scientist from BBC-ABB-Alstom, explains why much as possible of the work already done and to protect the Peenemünde supersonic and hypersonic facilities the wind tunnel to use it for further work. The develop- were left intact ("luckily", said Peter Wegener): Quoting ment of high-speed flying bodies is one of the most urgent from Eckardt’s article: "on 18 august 1943 the British op- and most interesting technical problems of the near future. eration "Hydra" had the purpose of annihilating the dor- The destruction of this tool for this development and the mant brains trust of the German V-weaponry and their destruction of his own brain work would actually mean families. However, the first wave of attacks missed the res- the suicide of the scientist." idential area of the 3000 to 4000 residents due to marking errors, but instead hit barracks further south, filled with construction workers and forced labourers drafted from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Ukraine." From Research to Museum It is also interesting to address to thoughts of the German scientists towards the end of WWII, and this is reported in the Public Law 81-415: Unitary Wind Tun- nel Plan Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. 501-515) and Air En- gineering Development Center Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. 521-524). At page 16 of the presentation made by David H. Hiebert, Historian at the Arnold Engineering devel- by TAMAS REGERT, DC 2004 opment Center (presented 15 January 2002 at Rena, Nevada) one can read the following story: he topic of this article may seem to be weird "In 1944 Wernher von Braun and another scientist, among the various success stories of former VKI Walter Dornberger anticipated that the SS would destroy Tcolleagues and students who succeeded to exploit documents and equipment related to the tunnels rather the knowledge and skills they gathered during their than let them fall into Allied hands. Reports containing the studies, especially during their period spent at VKI. To results of Peenemünde work for the previous eight years characterize myself shortly, I have always been passion- had, as part of the Peenemünde library, been moved to the ate about aviation, the science of flight, more specifically "Mittelwerk" in Thuringia, which lay under the jurisdic- the aerodynamics of aircraft. During all my career in the tion of General Kammler, appointed by Hitler as supreme academic world I was about to find my way to get closer commander for all efforts in rocketry. and closer to aviation, to work and do research concern- In March 1945 senior German scientists drove by night ing the aerodynamics of aircraft. Although I participated from Kochel to Thuringia with the objective of obtaining in many kinds of research and industrial projects that the secret archive reports of "series 66," contained in the were very far from the world of aircraft, I always consid- files of the Peenemünde institution. Von Braun issued or- ered those projects as great opportunities to learn some- ders for them to enter the underground complex, although thing, develop my skills that maybe I will apply someday he was not authorized to do so. The Kochel scientists re- for aviation. Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 10 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

The years just passed by and apart from a very small the future at VKI. After a couple of years of work, I found number of aviation related projects, it became clear to myself in the field of aerospace, hypersonic flows on one me that it seems not to be in my lifetime to have the hand and in the field of industrial fluid mechanics on long-desired opportunity to work on aircraft aerody- the other. Aviation started to disappear from the scope, namics. there was less and less need from the aviation industry in this domain and there was no possibility for me in After one of the lecture series on computational fluid sight. That was the moment when I decided to hit the dynamics at VKI, held by Professor John D. Anderson road and make a visit during the opening hours of the Jr., he gave a short presentation on the topic of breaking Beauvechain 1 Wing Historical Center (1WHC) with the the sound barrier in the conference room of VKI. During idea of starting to work on aeroplanes, specifically on his presentation, Professor Anderson mentioned that he the MiG-21. is a curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D. C. and that remark caught my attention immediately. After the presentation I had a pleasant discussion with him about his activities in that museum. It was amazing to me how many engineering details can be discussed, told and even taught to visitors while standing next to some legendary aeroplanes in museums, when interested people are around. Compared to teaching that I was used to at VKI, there were two big differences in museums: the illustration is a real aeroplane that has its deep effect on the audience, and the audience itself, which usually consists of people mostly without engineering skills. This was the moment when I started to consider some kind of activity in aviation museums. Such an activity does not require strict engage- ment, does not impose tight deadlines, and there is no budget necessary; thus, it seemed to be an ideal activity beside work and family. The MiG-21bis before the renovation exhibited at 1WHC Beauvechain Air Base I had in my memory the exceptional occasion when one of my DC classmates, Rob Haelterman, who was serving at the Belgian Air Force at the Beauvechain Air The volunteer personnel of 1WHC were very happy Base in Belgium, invited the DC class for a visit of Beau- with the idea even if I proposed to take care of only one vechain Air Base during our DC studies at VKI back in of their planes due to limitations imposed by my work- 2003. All of us were impressed by the exhibted super- load and family. They agreed and the news that there sonic fighter planes. I realized there was one aircraft is a "MiG guy" half of the age of the other old volun- that did not fit in the theme of the Belgian Air Force: teers, who will renovate the old MiG propagated quickly it was a former East-German operated Soviet MiG-21bis over the air base. Shortly after, the base commander of fighter plane which was already in quite a bad shape un- Beauvechain, Colonel Georges Franchomme, contacted der the trees exposed to all weather conditions. Being the museum when he heard about a Hungarian guy who Hungarian, this type of aircraft necessarily generated started an activity at his active air base. The personnel some nostalgic feelings in me; however, back in 2003 of 1WHC made it possible to have an appointment with I was optimistic about my future career in aviation aero- the base commander and clarify all security issues stem- dynamics, thus I did not pay too much attention to this ming from the fact that a "non-Belgian" would be autho- plane, neither to the other planes of the museum. At that rized to do activities on a military base of their territory. time I thought museums are places for old retired peo- Our discussion with the base commander became sur- ple full of interesting stories showing some grounded prisingly short as in the first minute I mentioned that I remains of aeroplanes. was an employee of the von Karman Institute for Fluid After the DC year I returned to Hungary to teach at Dynamics. This "keyword" had a sudden effect: the base the University of Technology in Budapest for a couple commander declared to his officers that "all permissions of years; however, due to the financial crisis I had to are granted to this guy". I received unlimited access to leave Hungary and I had the pleasure to join the VKI the airbase, a parking permission and unlimited techni- as an employee. From the first moment of taking up my cal support of the 1st Wing because I was an employee new job at VKI I had that museum in the back of my of the VKI. I also learnt quickly that the vice president of mind; however, being an active researcher, I did not see the Golden Falcon Association, a gathering of the retired any interest in dealing with historical aircraft: they rep- members of the Belgian Air Force, was Pierre Gallet, a resented the past, we were working on the present and former VKI DC student in 1967-1968. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Meanwhile I started to look around in the social network to ask some Hungarian friends if anyone had any contact with the former Hungarian Air Force which operated MiG-21s during 40 years. The flow of informa- tion was very efficient and I found that ex-mechanics of the Hungarian Air Force had just started to renovate one of the Hungarian MiG-21s in Hungary. I followed their work on the social network and learnt from their photos how to approach the aircraft, where we can step on, climb, what to touch and not to touch on the aircraft. It was already clear that if I wanted to do something on this aircraft, I would need those Hungarian experts because they know the aircraft, they know what is under the skin, what to pay attention to. I asked publicly Removing the plane from its exposition place with the for some expertise and most of those aircraft mechan- help of the cross-service of Beauvechain Air Base ics responded very kindly; however, they all drew my attention to the fact that the procedures to do anything I started the renovation project with a general ex- on this aircraft require quite a lot of practice and it is ternal inspection: apart from paint ripping off from the not at all recommended to start to disassemble some- surfaces and some rust forming around steel bolts fix- thing without having sufficient expertise. The distance ing some plates of the airframe, the state of the alu- of Beauvechain from Hungary and my awful financial minium skin seemed to be fairly good. The landing gears situation resulted in getting stuck with the project as were in good shape, the hydro-pneumatic dampers were it was not feasible to invite these experts to travel and still loaded correctly and held the plane as they should. work on the aircraft. Suddenly I learnt that the associ- The landing gear bays were clean, pipes and cables still ation of the ex-mechanics of the Hungarian Air Force tight, not even rusty and the pressure gauges showed destabilized, rivalry and dispute took place and some still some 50-100 bar pressures present in the systems. days after I received a call from one of the mechanics, The cockpit was surprisingly complete and also the secu- Rudolf Szilaveczki, a former mechanic crew chief of two rity pins with the long red connecting cables were prop- MiG-21s who was directly responsible for the prepara- erly inserted in their places to prevent an unintentional tion and flight readiness of the aircraft before transfer- start-up of the seat ejection procedure. That was the first ring it to the pilot on the "red line", that he would gladly security issue of the renovation: is it safe to approach the come to Belgium with one of his expert friends, San- cockpit, is it sure that the German units have really re- dor Mesterhazy, who was an expert of all avionics, radio moved all the pyro-cartridges from the seat and canopy communication and navigation systems and friend-or- jettison systems ... I called for a small meeting with the foe systems of MiG-21s, to work on the MiG. For them local aircraft mechanics and they had a superficial look this activity became rather a question of prestige, and it at the cockpit. The conclusion was simple: this is a Rus- became possible to continue the project on a volunteer sian aeroplane and nobody in the Belgian Air Force has basis. any clue concerning its structure and systems. We closed A delicate human resource management adventure the cockpit and there was no longer any authorization started for me in which I had zero experience. I be- to approach it. came suddenly a translator, interpreter and negotiator wherein my task was to motivate the 1WHC to get interested in renovating the aircraft of the "enemy", prove to the Beauvechain Air Base that the Hungarian experts have all the certificates and authorizations that permit them to work on this MiG-21bis sub-type as the MiG-21 type went through several modifications during its lifetime and major differences were present between varia- tions, and the other task was to motivate the Hungarian team with the argument that their work would be highly appreciated by the Belgian Air Force.

After six months of meetings, negotiations discus- sions, travelling and letter exchange the Hungarian Sandor Mesterhazy starts to remove the self-destruction Team was authorized to enter and work at the Beau- system of the conﬁdential systems behind the cockpit, vechain Air Base for the time of renovations. The base while Rudolf Szilaveczki repairs damages on the nose gear commander provided the main maintenance hangar of 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association the Beauvechain Air Base: hangar B28 in which some Al- phajet aircraft were dismounted for general inspection. The cross-service team of the air base provided their equipment and expertise to remove the MiG from its exposition place and tow it to the maintenance hangar. The two experts quickly dismounted all the cover plates from the airframe. Electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic system components quickly became visible to every- one and they were all found in excellent condition ... thanks to the proper sealing technology of the old So- viet aircraft industry. The experts quickly but thoroughly checked the seat ejection system in the cockpit and concluded that all the pyro-units were properly removed. The cockpit was safe. The conclusion of the inspection was that the systems of the plane were mostly complete Renovated cockpit and it was possible to put them back in operation.

Cockpit lights are on ! Dismounting of the cockpit in progress We removed the ejection seat and the avionics ex- We started with the electrical system as this was the pert dismounted the cockpit in order to verify the con- most spectacular one and also the most complete. Some nections, cables, switches and instruments. For the sake pipes of the hydraulic system were found disconnected, of safety, the high-power system was disconnected from thus to make that system operational seemed to be more the low power system, wherein the low power system complicated and demanded more effort than the elec- was the cockpit lighting and warning light system. Af- trical system. We thus decided to focus on the electrics ter assembling the cockpit again, a small power supply at this time. One important step was to check and de- was connected to the system and suddenly the whole activate the "self-destruction" equipment. These aircraft cockpit lighting system came alive in its original authen- were equipped with small detonators installed in some tic shape. The 23 mm GSH-23 type twin tube cannon of their highly confidential electronic units for the case was still on board the aircraft, but we decided to un- of having to land the plane on enemy territory without mount it from the plane as this weapon had become the complete destruction of the plane. In such a case the very rusty outside under the open sky. The cannon has pilot had to push a button that was covered and well been cleaned of rust and treated properly by the weapon secured in the cockpit, to start a chain of detonations in specialists of the air base and now it is exhibited at the the electronic equipment bays to destroy the electronic interior of the museum. After the cockpit renovation, units. Our expert Sandor Mesterhazy was trained in the we moved to the Tumansky R-25-300 gas turbine en- Soviet Union for the maintenance and repair of these gine. The MiG-21 engine specialist carefully inspected highly confidential systems, the best person to have at all accessible parts of the engine. It was surprising to this moment there with us, as he knew exactly the num- learn how many various ways this engine can be ac- ber and location of these detonators in the system. These cessed without removing it from the plane. That’s where detonator cartridges were carefully removed from the we could learn the expression "snake handed" mechan- systems before powering the plane up again after sev- ics, indicating the difficulty to access some engine parts eral decades of rest outside under rain, freezing temper- between the outside of the engine and the outer skin atures, snow, heat and humidity. of the aeroplane. The expert concluded that the engine Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 13 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association was brand new, it had never been started since it came the museum. It is a unique possibility in Belgium to see out from the Soviet factory. The maintenance points that the two opponents of the early period of the cold war contained parts that have to be removed every 50-hours at the same place: the F-104 Starfighter and the MiG- of flight for inspection were still secured with the origi- 21 Fishbed with experts to tell those fascinating stories nal Soviet seals. As in normal operation the aircraft me- from both sides of the iron curtain. chanics must remove these seals at every 50-hour maintenance occasion, they are secured with the seals of the local maintenance group, so East-German seals were expected ... but Soviet seals were found. It became clear VKI DC 1987-1988 30 Year Gathering based on the overall state of the aircraft that it must have flown a very low number of hours. It was like if a brand-new car would have been parked outside from the show room and left under open sky for 20 years. The next step was to power up the high power elec- tric system of the plane. For that a ground power supply of the Belgian Air Force was used. After some brain storming about how to connect the American standard power supply to the Soviet aircraft, we succeeded to re- by PATRICK VANKEIRSBILCK, DC 1988 animate the high-power system. The gyroscopes of the instruments started up, the current inverters started to uring the last years, a small group of DC 1987- whistle as they were supposed to, the landing lights ex- 1988 students regularly met in one or another tracted themselves from the wings and started up cor- Dnice resort to pass a long weekend and to recap rectly, the automatic direction finder’s needle started to each other’s life stories. At its last meeting in August look for the kHz-range radio signals, the artificial hori- 2017 in Italy, the group surprised itself realising that on zon caged itself and jumped into its reference state, the June 30th 2018 it would be exactly 30 years ago that radio altimeter tested itself and the plane seemed to be we all graduated from VKI. A small organising commit- ready to fly ... at least from the cockpit. A feeling of tee was set up including Sandro Gianni, Kevin Ruddick temptation was around in the team to plan a cold engine and myself and dates were decided upon for what was start, but we are all aware of its dangers. However, the to be named the "VKI DC 1987-1988 30 Year Gathering". team is still working on the plane, renovating the systems one by one with rather small steps and with very limited time available. The painter team of the Belgian Air Force was put in charge by the base commander for painting the aircraft. The MiG received its original East-German sign and camouflage scheme

From left to right: Jozef Peeters, Hans Nuglisch, Vit Babuska, Patrick Vankeirsbilck, Giuseppe Gibertini, Alessandro Gianni, Erik Rieger, Antonella Abba, Isabelle Dor, Josiane Lots, Patricia Corieri, Kevin Ruddick, Nadine Bosmans, Michel Saint-Georges, Josefa Martinez Toledo. In September 2017 the committee started tracing back as many graduates as possible with the help of the Alumni Association and got in touch with about 30 of them. Twelve of them decided to join the gathering. The MiG-21 with its new paint scheme done by the In Spring 2018 the committee finalized the programme painter team of Beauvechain Air Base and then, finally, on Friday July 6th the first VKI DC 1987-1988 graduates were received at a BBQ organized Meanwhile the MiG-21 of the 1st Wing Historical by Kevin Ruddick, a historic moment and not only be- Center became a very spectacular and valuable piece cause that very same evening Belgium defeated Brasil at that is proudly presented to the visitors by the guides of the FIFA World Championships. The first chats started Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 14 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association up quickly while enjoying fresh salads, meat, wine and beers. On Saturday afternoon, an "obligatory" visit for all participants and their companions was offered by Pro- fessor Jeroen Van Beeck. He took the group first to the - in 30 years almost unchanged - conference room for a summary of the ongoing activities at the VKI which was followed by a tour in the different labs. This tour was highly anticipated as many wanted to see the place where they had carried out their research project. After some refreshments in the VKI canteen, the group went for a walk in the forest, another moment to mix up and exchange life stories. The evening dinner was gratefully arranged by Stella Sauvan in the Alter Ego right behind the VKI. The restaurant opened exceptionally on Satur- day to exclusively receive the VKI DC 1987-1988 graduates in the garden. Some short speeches were given The Sunday evening dinner at Voet van Keizer Karel. by Vit Babuska and myself and the conversations went From left to right starting with closest person: Marta on under a sunny summer evening sky accompanied by Gibertini, Antonella Abba, Josiane Lots, Alessandro good food and wine. Gianni, Patrick Vankeirsbilck, Josefa Martinez Toledo, Michel Saint-Georges, Cathleen and Vit Babuska, Erik Rieger, Martina Lieshoff, Giuseppe Gibertini. Obviously, such reunions generate nostalgic feelings and in the same time it was very energising to learn about how the professional and private life of each of the VKI DC 1987-1988 had evolved in so many diverse directions. Looking forward to the next gathering with hopefully even more participants.

VKI Alumni Dinner at the ASME Turbo Expo 2018 Conference in Oslo

The Saturday evening dinner at Alter Ego. From left to right Patricia Corieri, Ilse Van Winckel, Jozef Peeters,Vit and Cathleen Babuska, Régine and Hans-Joachim Nuglisch, Alessandro Gianni, Josiane Lots, Nadine Bosmans, Michel Saint-Georges, Isabelle Dor, Antonella Abba, Giuseppe Gibertini, Patrick Vankeirsbilck, Josefa by TÂNIA FERREIRA, RM 2016 Martinez Toledo, Erik Rieger, Martina Lieshoff, Kevin Ruddick. n the 10th of June of 2018, a group of four stu- Sunday provided a flexible step-in-step-out pro- dents and two professors from VKI traveled to gramme in the afternoon and evening, because some OOslo, Norway, to spend an intense week at the participants had to leave earlier or wanted to make pri- ASME Turbomachinery Technical Conference & Exhibi- vate visits. The programme proposed a short improvised tion. Upon the arrival, the group was a bit sad to say concert in my music studio followed by an extensive goodbye to the Belgian beers and hello to Norway’s ex- walk under a bright shining sun in the Pajottenland travagant beer prices, well, prices in general actually. across the scenes that inspired the 16th-17th century The first place visited in Oslo was the Studenter- painter Pieter Brueghel the Old. Again, the walk offered lunded park in the city center close to the National The- plenty of time to exchange the little but connecting daily ater and the Norwegian parliament. The next day the aspects of life. The evening dinner took place at the conference started and, as customary, on the first day of "Voet van Keizer Karel" where many Belgian beers were the ASME Turbo Expo, there is always a reception: it is a tried and plans were made for future gatherings. very chilled atmosphere of free drinks and small snacks. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Women in Engineering Dinner. Next to the pillar: ASME Turbo Expo Welcome Reception. From right to left: Elissavet Bouﬁdi (RM 2015), Tânia Ferreira (RM 2016) Bogdan Cernat (RM 2015) and Arnaud Châtel (RM and Valeria Andreoli (RM 2015) 2016)

Friday came swiftly and with it the farewell to the The VKI Alumni Dinner took place on the following hardworking professors: the students instead remained day as organized by Bogdan Cernat. Up to twenty people in Oslo for the weekend to do a bit of tourism around gathered around to recall the mémoires and to tell sto- the city. ries of the so-ever missed VKI days. In fact, the reunion was so intimate and the conversations so interesting that sadly there was no time dedicated to take photos...

ASME Turbo Expo Venue. From left to right: Tânia Ferreira (RM 2016), Elissavet Bouﬁdi (RM 2015), VKI Alumni Dinner. From left to right: Roberto Maffulli Fabrizio Fontaneto (RM 2012), Sergio Lavagnoli (DC (RM 2011), Artur Carvalho (RM 2015), Cis de 2008), Roberto Maffulli (RM 2011), Arnaud Châtel (RM Maesschalck (RM 2012), Jorge Saavedra (RM 2014), 2016) and Bogdan Cernat (RM 2015). David Cuadrado (RM 2014), Bogdan Cernat (RM 2015), Arnaud Châtel (RM 2016) Apart from the rainy weather, it was rather nice to stroll around Oslo; a very beautiful city full of parks In the meantime, three PhD students were attend- and sculptures with world-class architecture. We had the ing the Women in Engineering Event: there they had chance to visit the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, the chance to join a large group of women engineers the Port of Oslo, the Akershus fortress, the city hall, the in the turbomachinery ﬁeld and enjoy their company Vigeland sculpture park, the National Gallery, the botan- and a dinner sponsored by GE and Pratt and Whitney. In ical garden, the Vikings museum (gift shop only!) and these meetings, usually, two very successful employees the Oslo Fjord. Coming back to VKI from ASME Turbo from these companies prepare an inspirational speech Expo is always a great experience, specially for meet- on their own professional journey to share with the ing our friends that have found a new home outside of other event attendees. Rhode-Saint-Genèse. 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

PhD project supervisor) presented to me the possibility to attend the DC as a unique opportunity in my life. I was not that enthusiastic with the idea, I really did not know anything about VKI and the DC and I was happy with my life in Italy ... so with not much enthusiasm I drove my way up to Belgium and it took me only a few days to realize that my boss was definitely right. - And what drove you to the decision to do a PhD after the DC? Did you already think about becoming a Professor at that time? Yes, that was my goal. The DC experience definitely set my mind in a "research mood", it helped me to understand that I love to face continuously new challenges, different . From left to right: Roberto Maffulli (RM 2011), topics, etc, It is not an easy work at the present time to Elissavet Boufidi (RM 2015) and Bogdan Cernat (RM find the necessary financial support to be able to perform 2015), with the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in high level research (and this I think is not a problem of Oslo in the background my country only ...), but this is what I like to do. I will never be able to work in industry with someone telling me what I have to do ... so in other words, I think that to be a scientist is a privilege. . - What did you do after leaving the VKI?

Interview with Luca Casarsa I finished my PhD course and after a couple of years of a post-doc I became Assistant Professor in 2005 in my home university. In 2015 I gained the position of associate Professor in Turbomachinery and Energy Systems. - What benefits could you take from your DC time for your professional career? Basically the DC set the path of my professional life. by TORSTEN KLEIN, DC 2002 At VKI I learned the basis of experimental fluid dynamics, skills that I developed in my research activity at the hen I attended the VKI DC of 2001/2002 I university and that also I transferred to a new adventure: shared my living place with another DC class in 2014 I founded with an ex colleague of mine, Alessan- Wmate, Luca Porreca. He knew Luca Casarsa al- dro Armellini (also a VKI DC student, class 2006-2007) ready from a former stay at the VKI, who was at that a spin-off company (www.advantech-time.com) where we time a PhD student at the turbomachinery department. offer to our customers customized experimental services to So I got the chance to get to know Luca Casarsa as well, support their product development processes. usually when we all went out for a party. One thing that I did not forget up to today was the fact that he was interested in air plane model making, which I thought to be a hobby with very few followers at that time (me included). When I met Luca Porreca in January, we talked about people from that time. I asked him about Luca Casarsa and he said that he nowadays works as a professor at the University of Udine. So it came to my mind to ask him for an interview. We were happy that the answer was positive, and so read now what he said in the interview. - Luca, do you remember why you decided to do the Diploma Course (today called Research Master) after your studies? Oh I remember perfectly, and I was about to make a big With my team of engineers in the spin-off lab (Advantech mistake! Let me explain: my professor at that time (my su- Time) where on my left (I am the third from right), there pervisor for the master thesis project and my next to come is Alessandro Armellini, also a VKI DC student 2006-07. Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 17 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

- Your company offers experimental services. Experi- antee the correct seed deposition (every 30 cm when the mental facilities in such a field need a lot of investment. machine is towed on the field, no more, no less, ...) using How did you cope with that in the beginning of your the lowest power and producing the least noise (from the spin-off? Did you maybe rent facilities in the beginning centrifugal compressor used for the purpose) as possible. or up to today? At the end we ended up with a redesign of most of the cir- cuitry and with a design tool that is now used to define the Yes, it is true, it was not easy to set up a lab from lay-out of non-standard machines. scratch. We invested much of the company income on in- strumentation and rigs and also from December last year - I read that you had a publication about the flow in a new building for the company’s operative unit. How- field in a cross flow fan. If I remember right, these types ever, you have to consider that we have only a couple of of fans are used in a lot of air conditioning devices world "big and standard" experimental facilities such as a cli- wide, but reveal a flow behaviour, which is not straight- matic chamber (to test home appliances) and an enthalpy forward. Do you think there is more research necessary tunnel (to test heat exchangers). Indeed, most of the ac- on such devices, which are usually produced by smaller tivity concerns "ad-hoc" experimental tests on specific cus- companies at very low cost but sold in high numbers? tomer products or processes; therefore, the facilities are designed for a specific purpose each time. The challenge with that kind of fan is that it is easy to increase the delivered pressure rise and efficiency, but - Tests can also be done virtually. Do you offer this as normally you pay for it with more noise due to the inter- a service as well? Why / Why not? action of the blade with the steady vortex that is estab- You have to consider that we normally operate in sit- lished across the rotor at the volute tongue. The requests uations where either we are requested for a standard test for higher performance of home appliances are ever in- (e.g. performance of a heat exchanger) or the numerical creasing, and this is coupled with a stronger and stronger simulation is very challenging because of the complexity of request for less energy consumption and with more atten- the problem. Nevertheless, we do also some numerics by tion to the noise impact of the device on the final user. So offering CFD simulation services where they are more cost the answer to your question is yes, there is still work to be effective with respect to the real testing. Some of the activ- done on such kinds of fans, even if they are low cost com- ity also is based on the definition of a virtual model of the ponents but can represent one of the key elements where to process, most of the time based on the experimental data focus the attention to improve energy efficiency and noise exploitation that we have provided in our lab. emission of many home appliances (e.g. domestic air con- ditioners). - Is there anything special you could tell us about your DC life at VKI and in Brussels in 2000/2001 ...? - What is your current field of research? It was a special year overall, that’s it! After the "VKI imprinting" I have been working for years on gas turbine blade cooling problems. This topic still - Are you still in contact with some of the colleagues represents my principal field of research. Recently, with my of your DC? team we have focused our attention also on hydro tur- Oh yes, we are still in contact with a few of them and bines, with particular reference to mini or micro applica- we are always looking forward to meet. Even if we do not tions and on the screw type turbine. We developed a sim- hear from each other for months, the relationship we built plified design approach (with new loss correlation) that at VKI is strong enough to catch up the missing time in few now we use to perform our own turbine design that we sell moments. on request. - Did you return to VKI for attending or contributing - What do you do in your spare time? Are you still a to Lecture Series or did you have any collaboration with friend of air plane model making and flying? Did or does VKI? this hobby maybe inspire your work to some extent? When there is the opportunity, I support my students Definitely yes, I even managed to take airplane model to attend either the RM or the short training program. making into my university! In 2011 we started the Aer- oUD project where a team of undergraduate students de- - What were the most exotic types of fluid dynamics sign, build and fly a model airplane with the aim to com- problems you had to work on in your professional life pete in international university challenges. The aim is to until today? lift the highest possible payload and fly as fast as possible It happened a few years ago that I had a contract with on a track made of 10 legs of 100 meters. We participated a company that makes agricultural machinery. My team to SAE Aerodesign in 2013, and AIR Cargo Challenge in had to optimize a seeder whose working principle was 2015 and 2017, and we scored always at the 4th place based on a pneumatic conveyor system. To understand how among about 50 teams from all over Europe, USA, South it works and the limitations to be overcome, a demo device America and Asia. I know the 4th place is only the first was installed in my lab. It was damned difficult to guar- place down from the podium, but it is not bad for a bunch 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association of mechanical engineers ... Now we are working hard for The visit started at the European Transonic Wind- the 2019 edition! tunnel, with a wonderful 1-hour tour by Dr. Peter Gun- termann and his colleagues, during which we got the opportunity to see and discuss various aspects of the impressive facility. The ETW is an organization founded, funded, and operated in a collaborative effort by Ger- many, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France. The ETW is rightfully considered the most advanced aerodynamic testing facility globally. It is a cryogenic windtunnel, operating at very low temperatures on the order of 110 K, achieving high Reynolds number testing and realistic flight conditions. Independent control of flow parameters allows accurate reproduction of the desired flight conditions. There is an incredible amount of problems associ- ated with the operation of the ETW to be considered and dealt with, apart from its aerodynamic design. The University team AeroUD, the team that participated to design and operation of such a facility stretch multidis- the last Air Cargo Challenge competition in 2017, ciplinary engineering to the extreme, and it has been an Zagreb, Croatia, with Luca first from right excellent experience for us to take an inside look into this tremendously challenging achievement. We had the Many thanks, Luca Casarsa, for this interview! chance to walk around this impressively huge wind tunnel and see all its complementary systems, related to cooling, pumping, power distribution, monitoring and control, and many more. It was also very interesting to discuss the operational aspects of this facility, related to VKI Student Trip to DLR and ETW in managing projects, clients, staff, and confidentiality is- Köln Porz-Wahn sues. We continued the visit at the DLR site near Cologne, which is also its headquarters. We first headed to the Institute of Propulsion Technology and the Media Sup- ply Center. The tours were given by Dr. Alexander Hergt and Mr. Francois Hübler. At the Institute of Propulsion Technology, we had the opportunity to take a close look into test rigs for turbomachinery, as well as combustion chambers, discussing the various projects the DLR is cur- by ATHANASIOS MARGARITIS, VKI RM 2018 rently involved in. During the visit of the turbomachinery facilities, we came to learn that the supersonic cas- his year the von Karman Institute Alumni Associa- cade wind tunnel TGK was donated in the early sixties tion (VKI-AA) organized a day-trip for the grad- by the NACA and, even more surprising, that the rig was Tuate students, to visit the site of the German originally intended to be installed at the VKI. The facil- Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Transonic ity was instead transferred to the DLR site because of the Windtunnel (ETW) in Köln Porz-Wahn. The trip took extreme requirements in terms of compressed air supply place on June 27th, just two days before the graduation and electrical power day, making it a great way to end the Research Master We were again impressed by the size and specifi- program. A total of 28 persons participated to the visit: cations of some of the testing facilities, while we also 21 out of the 30 RM’s, class 2017-2018, plus 2 PhD can- discussed DLR’s approach in numerical simulations and didates, 4 members of the short training program and a validation against experimental data. faculty member, assistant professor Sergio Lavagnoli. Continuing to the Media Supply Center, we encoun- The day started very early in the morning, at 6:45, tered one of the aspects often overlooked, related to the in an effort to beat the traffic, and arrive before 10:00 operation and management of such a massive research in Cologne. We compensated for the short delay with a center, regarding the networking and infrastructure. A very smooth and quick registration and welcome by Dr. lot of effort is needed in the backstage for research and Burkard Esser. We were already impressed at that point testing to be carried out. with the size of some of the major facilities, eager to get a closer look. DLR kindly provided their canteen during lunchtime, 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] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association to have a short break that gave us the chance to try some We left Cologne with the best of memories! This trip of the typical German dishes available at the canteen. As was an excellent way to wrap up an exciting year, fill- expected, everybody enjoyed the German cuisine, most ing us with some more knowledge and taking a closer of us trying the famous wurst, stew, or pork with fries or look into the applications of what we have been see- potato salads. ing throughout our studies. We want to thank Professor Mario Carbonaro for arranging this, as well as the VKI After the lunch break, we went on to visit the Super- Alumni Association, and Professor Ali Gülhan who in- sonic and Hypersonic Technology Department, guided vited and hosted us at DLR, together with everybody by Dr. Burkard Esser and Dr. Patrick Gruhn. We had the else involved from DLR and ETW who made this visit as opportunity to see some of the excellent supersonic and great as it was. The trip has been a really fulfilling expe- hypersonic test facilities available at DLR, finishing this rience, inspiring us for our future steps and strengthen- part of the tour at the impressive arc heated windtun- ing the bonds between VKI and other research institutes, nels L2K and L3K, two of the best of their kind, used so we strongly encourage such visits for the students of in a variety of projects related to high-enthalpy flows. VKI in the future. Many questions arose, and they were all answered in a very informative way, making this visit great complementary material building up on our knowledge from formal courses. The VKI-AA Research Travel Grants The last part of our tour brought us to the Institute for Aerospace Medicine and the :envihub facility, where 2018 we really did not know what to expect. We were soon s reported in the previous NL 24, the VKI Alumni very impressed and fascinated by the research projects Association granted in 2017 four Research Travel carried out there. After a short welcome and introduc- AGrants to Federico Bariselli and Bruno Dias for a tion, Mrs. Friederike Wütscher took us to see the inside stay at NASA Ames, Erik Torres for a stay at the Univer- of :envihub, with chambers for isolation studies, training sity of Texas at Austin, and Elissavet Boufidi for a stay in limited space, and other exciting facilities. The peak at the Politecnico di Milano. All four recipients prepared of the tour was at the centrifuge where human subjects articles published in previous Newsletters. However, the are tested to investigate the effects of gravity. We had first three grant recipients were also supported respec- the luck to see an experiment that was being carried out tively by the Belgian FWO and FRIA (partially), and by at the moment, as part of the European Space Agency’s the hosting university (totally). Thus the total financial "Spin your thesis! Human Edition" program, and get an- support to the four candidates by the VKI Alumni Associ- swers to our questions by the students involved in the ation was only 1856.97 e, much less than the budgeted project. amount available of 4000 e. Therefore, the plan was to The visit was wrapped up just in time, before Ger- transfer the unspent amount as an available fund for the many’s game against South Korea for the world cup. We 2018 RTG’s. boarded the bus to head back to the von Karman Insti- However, only three requests were received this tute after a 3-hour drive, as everybody was tuning in to year: from Stefano Boccelli, Sara Porchetta and Fran- watch the match. cisco Torres Herrador, all three for visits to USA and Canada. The maximum amount of each grant for a trip to North America being 1300 e, the available remnant of the budget shall be reserved to support other candidates, this year if any, or next year.

Stefano Boccelli is planning two 3-month visits to the University of Ottawa, Canada. The first will take place sometime during the period from November 2018 to April 2019, to col- laborate with Professor James G. Mc- Donald and Professor Clinton Groth, leading experts on the development of numerical methods for Boltzmann moment systems for rarefied flows. In June 2017, Stefano completed with honours a VKI The group after returning back to VKI, Research Master in the Aeronautics and Aerospace de- tired but very excited partment, winning the "Theodore von Karman Prize" for Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 20 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 25th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association both his academic and research performance, as well as At the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Sci- the Prince Alexandre of Belgium award for the best pre- ence Centre, Sara will become acquainted with their sentation. In his research project, he has worked on the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport "Simulations of electron concentration in the wake of (COAWST) modelling system and will assist in the fur- meteors and application to radio observations", obtain- ther development of their study of atmospheric bound- ing innovative results presented in a poster at the 61st ary layer processes and surface wind profiles, with ap- Course of the International School of Quantum Electron- plication to renewable wind turbine energy, by imple- ics in 2017. menting her new parametrization, extracted from offshore measurements near Woods Hole as well as in the Since October 2017, Stefano has been enrolled in German part of the North Sea. the VKI PhD program under the supervision of Profes- sor Thierry Magin in collaboration with the Department Francisco Torres Herrador is plan- of Aerospace Science and Technology at the Politecnico ning a two-month stay at NASA Ames, di Milano, under the supervision of Professor Aldo Frez- working with Dr. Nagi Mansour, who in zotti. After a very competitive selection process, he ob- the past has already hosted a number of tained a fellowship from the Politecnico di Milano on VKI PhD candidates and postdocs, thus the topic "Development of moment methods for elec- continuing a long tradition of collabora- tric propulsion systems", to develop simulation tools that tion with the VKI. will prove to be crucial to plasma propulsion systems, a technological application that is an emerging research In June 2017, Francisco Torres Her- activity at VKI. rador completed with honours a Research Master in the Aeronautics and Aerospace department, and in his re- At the University of Ottawa, Stefano will extend a search project, he worked on the "Experimental char- promising moment method based on entropy maximisa- acterization and simulation of pyrolysis phenomenon, tion principles, originally formulated by Professor Mc- from carbon composites ablators to pacific islands plant Donald and Professor Groth, by modifying the formu- biomass", under the supervision of Professor Thierry Ma- lation to introduce multiple chemical species and self- gin. This project was part of a Proof of Concept grant consistent electromagnetic forces. Also numerical as- for technology transfer sponsored by the European Re- pects will be considered by coupling a VKI library for search Council. chemical species behaviour, Mutation++, to the research code developed at Ottawa and by implementing Since October 2017, Francisco has been enrolled in the modified equations. the VKI PhD program in collaboration with the "Vrije Universiteit Brussel". He also obtained from the Belgian Flemish FWO organization a fellowship on the topic Sara Porchetta is planning a one- of "Experimental characterization and numerical mod- month visit in September to the Coastal elling of space debris degradation during atmospheric and Marine Science Centre, in Woods re-entry", a pioneering study in the VKI PhD program. Hole, Massachusetts, an Oceanographic He has also obtained support for this trip from the FWO, Research Centre, part of the US Geolog- and therefore the VKI-AA will cover only unforeseen ex- ical Survey, Department of the Interior, penses not otherwise covered by the Belgian Flemish or- which is one of the leading research in- ganization. stitutes investigating the offshore wind- wave interaction, for both wind energy applications as At NASA Ames, Francisco will continue the devel- well as the more theoretical momentum exchange of opment of a code named PATO (Porous medias Analy- gases through the sea surface, of importance for climate sis TOolbox), initially developed to simulate degrada- change studies. tion of space heatshields, and for which the VKI has already contributed a considerable effort, by including the In June 2016 Sara completed with honours a Re- Mutation++ library to calculate chemistry and trans- search Master in the Environmental & Applied Fluid port properties of species resulting from the pyrolysis of Dynamics department under the supervision of Profes- space heatshields. sor Jeroen van Beeck, and in her research project, she worked on coupled mesoscale and microscale simula- Mario Carbonaro, DC 1968 tions of atmospheric boundary layer flows, including VKI Honorary Director and Professor thermal effects, in a city environment.

Sara was then enrolled in the VKI PhD program, in collaboration with the University of Leuven, on the subject of the impact of the wave-wind interaction on the energy harvesting of offshore wind turbines. Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium - 21 - m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] 24th Newsletter of the VKI Alumni Association

Where are they and what are they doing: Loïs Labarrère

by LOÏS LABARRÈRE, RM 2014

did my Research Master course on a project with Explosion of the Crab nebula Bombardier, related to high speed trains. After the Igraduation day I went to Montreal, spending a cou- The picture represents the Crab nebula. It is mean- ple of months finishing the contractual side of my RM ingful, it represents the explosion of a star. What’s hap- project, related to tests on hardware. pening on the picture is the propagation of atoms into A few months later I have been lucky to make a stay the universe. This star has manufactured atoms over at RocketLab USA in New-Zealand. It’s been an early its entire life. Its life having ended, it literally explodes contact with the launch industry and with a launcher. propagating atoms throughout the cosmos. Millions of I left New-Zealand to come back to France, my home years later, these atoms compose our bodies. We are here country, getting a job with Air Liquide Advanced Tech- because, one day, a star manufactured the most elemen- nology (ALAT), in a business unit dedicated to cryogen- tary components of our bodies, making us alive. This ics for space applications. It was an experience showing reality, literally blowing my mind for years, has been my me the advantages of big organizations but also their seed motivation to act in the space sector. disadvantages. Even-though the projects were interest- It leads to my present activity, in France. The cre- ing, the culture was not centered on "fast innovation cy- ation of a start-up, Seed X, around an exciting project cles": the rate at which ideas can emerge, be prototyped, related to space robotics. I started wondering about the tested and brought to reality was not leading to compet- sense of doing it. Ten months after heating up, we are itiveness. It is understandable. It is hard combining both now four persons. Two of us are advisors, Jean-Marc the robustness and stability of big organizations and the Charbonnier and Ozgur Karatekin, both VKI-AA mem- versatility and high reactivity of small organizations: the bers. first involves thousands of people while the second in- This project takes place in a context called the "new volves small teams. The industry needs both organiza- space age", a phenomenon now well measurable in the tions. evolution (or call it revolution) of space activities. The I chose the small organization side, left ALAT and ambition of the project is simple: try pushing the lim- signed a contract with a Spanish company called Zero 2 its of what private ventures, small teams, science and Infinity (OIIOO). I was responsible for the development technology can do in helping people to explore (and un- program of the prototype of a cryogenic rocket engine, derstand) our universe. for a small space launcher. We are pleased to find help. Project launching, funding, development strategy -but not limited to- are topics It has now been three and a half years since I com- where we welcome help from anywhere over the globe pleted the Diploma Course. Two things emerged from and particularly from the USA. Anyone feeling inspired this post-VKI period. can contact me ([email protected]). The first is a contact with the world of tech start- There is a last thing I haven’t said, strongly printed ups over different continents. Start-ups are a cradle for in the DNA of my professional life: it is the VKI (Not innovation and most of the time lead advances in tech- only because of the beer meetings of Sébastien Paris). nologies. The second began a long time ago, but, some- The VKI has played a major role in my professional trail. where, has been catalyzed by my experience at VKI: It is unquestionable, it is an awesome organization, over Space. many aspects of its purpose.

Association of the Alumni of the von Karman Institute - 22 - Chaussée de Waterloo 72, 1640 Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium m www.vki-alumni.org v +32-2-35 99 600 B [email protected] Newsletter Technical/Manuscript Editor: Mario Carbonaro, using Mehmet Mersinligil’s template B [email protected]