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A fact from Adolf Busemann appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 January 2008, and was viewed approximately 2,906 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that after years of studying airflow at supersonic speeds, Adolf Busemann suggested that aerodynamicists, who had forgotten his swept wing work until they got together again during Operation Paperclip, need to become 'pipe fitters'?
Latest comment: 10 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
There's slightly more about him in the German wikipedia, you could try translating that (babelfish did a vaguely reasonable job IRC). Otherwise google and books.WolfKeeper 12:29, 24 December 2006 (UTC)Reply
I also recommend looking at Von Karman's writings ("Where We Stand" 1945, and his 1954 book about Aerodynamics and history). He makes it clear that the studies done at Braunschweig were very important. Schairer claims that the B-47 swept wing idea was credited to Jones' work at Langley. What Von Karman says is that he knew about Jones, but the German discovery caused him to actually call back to Boeing and change the wing design. Jones was still battling conservative forces who wouldn't believe him, and Busemann's work more or less ended that debate.
Alexander Lippisch seems to get more credit for the idea of swept wings and delta wings, probably because the DM-1 glider was cool looking. Most people don't realize the DM-1 was made of plywood, never flew, and was only wind tunnel tested up to 45 mph. Not that he wasn't highly respected, but I think Busemann tends to get pushed into the background in popular narrative. DonPMitchell (talk) 20:14, 17 April 2014 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
"At the time of his proposal, flight much beyond 300 miles per hour had not been achieved, and it was considered an academic curiosity"
Actually, shells and bullets were almost Mach 3 fast at that time, and aerodynamics of shells had made enough progress by 1916 already to allow for increased artillery ranges by using different shell shapes only. Lastdingo (talk) 16:09, 10 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
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