Posted by John Lynch on November 25, 2007 Births
1703 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist
1814 – Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist
1887 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian geneticist
1913 – Lewis Thomas, American physician and essayist
Deaths
1686 – Nicolas Steno, Danish geologist
1694 – Ismael Bullialdus, French astronomer
1884 – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist
1972 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer
My first exposure to Henri Coanda was in an article in Analog way back around 1963. The article was on the Coanda Effect, and the example the author used was the incident involving the loss of the Coanda Jet in 1910.
Why did Henri lose the aircraft? The Coanda Effect had a big part in it, but he lost the aircraft mostly because he insist on having the engine up front, since that was supposed to be more efficient. Had he only placed the engine behind the pilot with the exhaust coming out behind the tail the history of aviation would’ve been much different.
November 26, 2007