George Schairer
George Sorg Schairer (born May 19, 1913 in Wilkinsburg , Allegheny County , Pennsylvania , † October 28, 2004 in Kirkland , Washington ) was an aerodynamics expert at Boeing .
His father, Otto Sorg Schairer (* 1879 in Saline (Michigan); † 1976) was a co-founder of KDKA and a TV pioneer.
Schairer attended Swarthmore College and studied at MIT , where he invented Schairer's Airplane Performance Slide Rule and earned his Masters with a test of four helicopter rotors in the wind tunnel . He started at Bendix Corporation and later moved to Consolidated Aircraft , where he designed the wing and tail surfaces of the Consolidated B-24 . He then moved to Boeing, where he worked on the B-17 , B-29 , B-377 Stratocruiser , C-97 Stratofreighter , B-47 , B-50 , B-52 Stratofortress , KC-135 , 707 and 727 .
In 1944/45 he was a member of the US Army Air Force Scientific Advisory Group under the direction of Theodore von Kármán and Hugh Latimer Dryden . During this time he began to be interested in swept wings . At the end of the war he belonged to a group of scientists who searched German research facilities. The test results he found confirmed the usefulness of the sweep in reducing shock waves as they approached the speed of sound. After his return he had Boeing planes such as the Boeing B-47 built with a sweep of up to 35 °.
From 1959 to 1973 he was Vice President of the Research and Development Department. In 1978 he retired. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Defense Intelligence Agency . In 1957 he received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal.
In 1968 Schairer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .
supporting documents
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/obituaries/14schairer.html
- ↑ http://www.guggenheimmedal.org/Medalist%20PDF/MEDALIST%20FOR%201967.pdf
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schairer, George |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schairer, George S. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American aerodynamics expert |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 19, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wilkinsburg , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 28, 2004 |
| Place of death | Kirkland , Washington |