Theodore Von Kármán – (1881-1963)

On Saturday, November 12th, 2011, we hosted the second in our 2011-2012 Lecture Series – Theodore Von Kármán – (1881-1963), Hungarian-American research engineer and physicist active in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. Our presenter was Dr. Pál Gyékényesi, retired NASA engineer.

Theodore von Kármán (original Hungarian name: Szöllöskislaki Kármán Tódor) (May 11, 1881 – May 7, 1963) was a Hungarian-American aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization. He later became an important figure in supersonic motion.  He acquired fame in the use of mathematical tools to study fluid flow, and the interpretation of those results to guide practical designs. He was instrumental in recognizing the importance of the swept-back wings that are ubiquitous in modern jet aircraft. The audience was able to appreciate these highly technical achievements because Dr. Pál Gyékényesi’s presentation was well documented and the audio-visual enhancements served to demonstrate Von Kármán’s contributions.

Dr. von Kármán He studied engineering at the city’s Royal Joseph Technical University, known today as Budapest University of Technology and Economics. After graduating in 1902 he moved to Germany and joined Ludwig Prandtl at the University of Göttingen, and received his doctorate in 1908. In 1912 accepted a position as director of the Aeronautical Institute at RWTH Aachen, one of the country’s leading universities. His time at RWTH Aachen was interrupted by service in the Austro-Hungarian Army 1915–1918, where he designed an early helicopter.

Apprehensive about developments in Europe, he left RWTH Aachen in 1930 and accepted the directorship of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) and emigrated to the United States. In 1936, along with Frank Malina and Jack Parsons, he founded a company Aerojet to manufacture JATO rocket motors. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

German activity during World War II increased U.S. military interest in rocket research. During the early part of 1943, the Experimental Engineering Division of the United States Army Air Forces Material Command forwarded to von Kármán reports from British intelligence sources describing German rockets capable of reaching more than 100 miles (160 km).

In 1944 he and others affiliated with GALCIT founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is now a Federally funded research and development center managed and operated by Caltech under a contract from NASA. In 1946 he became the first chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group which studied aeronautical technologies for the United States Army Air Forces. He also helped found AGARD, the NATO aerodynamics research oversight group (1951), the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (1956), the International Academy of Astronautics (1960), and the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels (1956).

Early in September 1944, while in New York, he met with U.S. Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. Arnold on a runway at LaGuardia Airport. Hap Arnold then proposed that von Kármán move to Washington, D.C. to lead the Scientific Advisory Group and become a long-range planning consultant to the military. He returned to Pasadena around mid-September. Von Kármán was appointed to the position on October 23, 1944, and left Caltech in December 1944.

At age 81 von Kármán was the recipient of the first National Medal of Science, bestowed in a White House ceremony by President John F. Kennedy. He was recognized, “For his leadership in the science and engineering basic to aeronautics; for his effective teaching and related contributions in many fields of mechanics, for his distinguished counsel to the Armed Services, and for his promoting international cooperation in science and engineering.”

Dr. von Kármán died while on a trip to Aachen (Germany) in 1963. He is buried in Pasadena, California.

Source: Adapted from several websites in public domaine.