History of the Institute of Aerodynamics

Major theoretical research was conducted in the field of flight stability and aircraft manoeuvrability. In 1909 Reissner made experiments with a biplane that glided more than 100m. A development of his was the famous "Reissner Duck" with a canard configuration. It took off in 1912 and was the first all-metal construction airplane. Although Reissner left Aachen in 1913, he can be regarded the founder of the Aerodynamisches Institut in Aachen, the history of which dates back to 1912.

In 1913 Th. von Kármán took over the chair of mechanics and aerodynamics. He had studied in Budapest and joined Prandtl in Göttingen in 1906 to write his PhD thesis on the buckling phenomenon in structure mechanics. He is not only to thank for the scientific development of the Institute but also for establishing an intensive interaction between research and application at Aachen.

After Carl Wieselsberger had studied and done his doctorate in engineering in Munich he went to Göttingen where he received a doctor degree in philosophy. Until 1930 he worked at the Imperial University in Tokyo. In 1931 he was called to Aachen to fill the chair of mechanics. Later he also succeeded von Kármán as the director of the Aerodynamisches Institut. His research was closely related with his flight experience since he was a passionate pilot. He developed measurement techniques and instruments, and began to construct an intermittent operating supersonic wind tunnel. Prof. Wieselsberger deceased in 1941 at the age of 53 after a painful disease.

Between 1941 and 1944 the Aerodynamisches Institut strongly suffered from air raids and was finally relocated to Sonthofen in Bavaria. In 1947, after the collapse of the Third Reich, the Institute returned to Aachen. Immediately after the Second World War aerodynamics research was strictly forbidden in Germany. However, over the years the restrictions were abolished thanks to scientists like von Kármán.

In the sixties A. Naumann filled the chair of fluid mechanics and took over the management of the Aerodynamisches Institut. He had studied in Leipzig and came to Aachen in 1937 as chief scientist under Prof. Wieselsberger. After the Second World War he worked in France before he returned to Aachen in 1951. His research was mainly devoted to gas dynamics. His courses comprised hypersonic flows, thermal and magneto gas dynamics, low density flows, etc. Like von Kármán he was a member of the NATO Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development (AGARD). In 1983 Prof. Naumann deceased in Aachen at the age of 77.

In August 1998 W. Schröder took over the chair of fluid mechanics and became head of the Aerodynamisches Institut. He completed his studies in Aachen in 1983 and later received his doctorate degree at the Aerodynamisches Institut. In 1987 he received a scholarship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to study at the California Institute of Technology. In 1988 he received the Hermann Reissner Prize at the University of Stuttgart together with his colleagues Drs. D. Hänel and R. Schwane.

1989 he returned from California to Germany to take on a position in the space division at MBB (Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH) Munich, later on renamed Deutsche Aerospace AG, where he was involved in several European space flight projects. In 1995 Prof. Schröder became Professor for Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Applied Sciences in Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel until he received the call from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen in 1998.