Gustav Lachmann
Gustav Victor Lachmann (born February 3, 1896 in Dresden , † May 30, 1966 in Chorley Wood , Hertfordshire , Great Britain) was a German aerodynamicist of Austrian origin. During the First World War he developed the principle of the slat independently of the Briton Fredrick Handley and with this invention is considered a pioneer of European aviation.
Lachmann served first with the Hessian body dragons and then in the First World War as a pilot in the army with the rank of lieutenant . In 1917 he suffered serious injuries in a crash. After the end of the war he studied mechanical and aircraft engineering at the TH Darmstadt from 1918 . In 1919 he became a member of the Corps Hassia Darmstadt . In 1921 he went to the University of Göttingen to continue his studies in mathematics, mechanics and aerodynamics with Ludwig Prandtl , where he finally received his doctorate in fluid mechanics and boundary layer theory in 1923.
His groundbreaking idea, registered as early as 1918, of stabilizing the boundary layer on the wing profile with slats (Lachmann flaps) was not recognized and rejected by the German Patent Office. In 1921, the English aircraft manufacturer Fredrick Handley took advantage of this idea and had Lachmann research for him in the Göttingen wind tunnel. From 1924 he worked as a designer for the aircraft factory Franz Schneider in Berlin , two years later he became a technical consultant for the aircraft factory Ishikawajima in Tokyo . Finally, in 1929, he moved to Great Britain, where he became director of research at the Handley factory and was responsible for the development of the Harrow and Hampden bombers .
With the outbreak of the Second World War he was interned, but Handley was able to get Lachmann to continue working for his company as a consultant engineer . In 1949 he became a British citizen. He remained with Handley Page until five months before his death.
literature
- Werner Schulz: Lachmann, Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 369 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Literature by and about Gustav Lachmann in the catalog of the German National Library
- English translation of the German article about the slat from 1921 (PDF file; 1.27 MB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Corps Hassia Darmstadt. 1840-1955. List of members of Hassia-Darmstadt. 1955, pp. 72/73.
- ↑ Dr. Lachmann died , in Flug Revue, August 1966, p. 55
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lachmann, Gustav |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lachmann, Gustav Victor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German aircraft designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 3, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1966 |
| Place of death | Chorley Wood |