And Hypersonic Flight

As the feature articles in this issue demonstrate, withoutthe scientific method of Leonardo da Vinci and thelater work of the Gotlingen School in Germany, supersonicflight, rocket flight, and other achievements ofmodern science would not exist at all.Science historian Dino de Paoli makes it clear thatLeonardo's work on hydrodynamics not only is slid valid,but also is the only standpoint from which we can understandthe action of the real fluids that make up 99.99The wind tunnel facility at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, whereNASA is testing a Mach 7 Scram jet. Air is heated to 3,400" F. bythe electric arc at left. Shown in the open window is the front of thescramjet engine model. NASA has outlined a 15-year, billion-dollarprogram that would lead to a Mach-12 transport capable of carrying300 to 500 passengers.FEF research director Uwe Parpart Itenke elaborateson the Riemannian geometrical method of the GottingenSchool, highlighting the hydrodynamics work ofLudwig Prandtl and contrasting this successful approachto the dead-end outlook of the opposition, exemplifiedin this country by Theodore von Karman.Italian FEF director Giuseppe Filipponi provides acapsule history of the Riemannian tradition in Italy, demonstratinghow this led to the rapid Italian progress inaerodynamics in the 1920s and 1930s.Fusion news editor Charles B. Stevens reviews thecurrent status of hypersonic flight, describing how theUnited States could leap-frog the supersonic stage andright now develop aircraft that fly at 12 times the speedof sound.