Rudolf Hermann, Wind Tunnels and Aerodynamics
- Paper number
IAC-06-E4.1.02
- Author
Dr. Charles Lundquist, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States
- Coauthor
Mrs. Anne Coleman, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Dr. Rudolf Hermann was born December 15, 1904 in Leipzig, Germany. He studied at the University of Leipzig and at the Aachen Institute of Technology. His involvement with wind tunnels began in 1934 when Professor Carl Wieselsberger engaged him to work at Aachen on development for the Luftwaffe of a supersonic wind tunnel. On January 6, 1936, Dr. Wernher von Braun visited Dr. Hermann to arrange for use of the Aachen supersonic wind tunnel for Army problems. On April 1, 1937, Dr. Hermann became Director of the Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the Army installation at Peenemunde. There he reported directly to Major General Walter Dornberger. Results from the Aachen and Peenemunde wind tunnels were crucial in achieving aerodynamic stability for the A-4 rocket, later designated the V-2. Plans to build a Mach 10 ‘hypersonic’ wind tunnel facility at Kochel were accelerated after the Allied air raid on Peenemunde on August 17, 1943. Dr Hermann was director of the new facility, however, the Mach 10 tunnel was not completed before World War II ended. Ignoring destruction orders from Hitler as the European war approached an end, Dr. Hermann and his associates at Kochel hid documents and preserved wind tunnel components. These were acquired by the American forces. To secure this technology, the U.S. Air Force sent teams of scientists with the advancing troops. Dr. Fritz Zwicky of the California Institute of Technology headed the team that reached Kochel. Subsequently, the wind tunnel materials and the technical personnel were brought to the United States. The small wind tunnels were reassembled by Kochel personnel at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. A Mach 10 wind tunnel eventually was completed at the Air Force establishment in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Dr. Hermann became a consultant to the Air Force at its Wright Patterson Base in November, 1945, providing his expertise to the Air Force through 1950. In 1951, he became a professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Minnesota and concurrently after 1959, he was a Director of the Hypersonic Laboratory of the Rosemount Aeronautical Laboratories at the University. In 1962, Dr. Hermann became the first Director of the Research Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a position he held until he retired in 1970. Following his administrative retirement, Dr. Hermann continued until 1974 as a professor at UAH. He donated his scientific papers, including Peenemunde reports, to the Archives at the UAH Library. Dr. Hermann died in Huntsville May 17, 1991.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-E4.1.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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