Siegfried F. Erdmann

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Siegfried F. Erdmann (born May 7, 1916 in Berlin ; † October 3, 2002 in Pijnacker ) was a specialist in supersonic aerodynamics and sensor technology as well as a full professor at the Technical University of Delft .

Life

After graduating from high school at Hohenzollern Realgymnasium in Berlin in 1934, Erdmann studied experimental physics and high-frequency technology at the Technical University of Berlin . His diploma thesis dealt with the generation of extremely short square-wave pulses in devices for distance measurement (1939). From October 1939 until the end of the war, Erdmann initially worked at the aerodynamic institute of the Peenemünde Army Research Center , which was just being set up under the direction of Wernher von Braun . Soon he was appointed head of the main group “Basic Research and Special Metrology”. His specialty was pressure distribution measurements by means of drilling at supersonic speeds. Two areas of application were in the foreground: (a) the " Waterfall " project , which concerned the development and construction of a remotely guided , anti-aircraft missile that was to be guided from the ground along a guide beam at three times the speed of sound , and (b) a long-term project of a two-stage missile with an intercontinental Range and a maximum of ten times the speed of sound. The large “super sonic wind tunnel ” required for this still had to be built. Erdmann was responsible for the measurement technology in the hypersonic area. From July 1944 until the end of the war, parts of the development of the wind tunnel from Peenemünde to Kochel am See were outsourced. Erdmann experienced the end of the war with his family in the Lower Saxon village of Müden -Dieckhorst.

In the first months after the war the Allies tried to share in the German special knowledge in scientific and technical fields. Erdmann, like many other German scientists and engineers, was then asked for details in the British “Interrogation Camp” in Wimbledon- Hampstead. There he met Wernher von Braun again, who stood up for him. Towards the end of January 1946 he received an invitation from the Dutch aviation laboratory NLL - today known as the Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium (NLR) - to help set up a Dutch wind tunnel. For the first time in Europe, six times the speed of sound was reached in a wind tunnel.

In 1951 he did his doctorate under Josef Meixner , Alexander Naumann and Hubert Schardin on new methods for making air currents visible , to become a Dr.-Ing. of the University of Aachen. Shortly before that, he had switched to the Aviation Technology Institute at KTH Stockholm , where he stayed for almost five years and became head of the supersonic wind tunnel systems there. In 1954, back in the Netherlands, he took over the management of the gas dynamics department. It was here that the necessary tests in the hypersonic area for the ELDO rocket and the European Concorde supersonic airliner could be carried out for the first time. Erdmann's extensive work at the NLL (NLR since 1961) was described in detail and appreciated by Abraham Elsenaar in 2012.

In 1960 Erdmann was granted Dutch citizenship , in 1961 appointed as associate professor at the Technical University of Delft and in 1969 as full professor.

The results of his work, especially the method of Oswatitsch and Erdmann for the approximate calculation of obliquely blown bodies of revolution , soon became known internationally through lectures at GAMM (REF) and AGARD conferences, followed by a number of other publications.

Fonts

  • A survey of 10 years of NLR activities on ringwing-body configurations (1956–1966) , NLR Amsterdam, 1967
  • German Dutch Odyssey in the approach of space travel , DUP Satellite, 2001, ISBN 90-407-2156-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Basic information on pressure distribution measurements by means of drilling at supersonic speeds , lecture at the Peenemünder supersonic conference, 1941
  2. ↑ Methods for making air currents visible , dissertation, 1951
  3. ↑ Abraham Elsenaar: 0.2 <Ma <4.0 - 50 years high speed wind tunnel testing in the Netherlands , Foundation Historical Museum NLR, Amsterdam, 2012, ISBN 978-90-79581-13-9
  4. ↑ Method by Oswatitsch and Erdmann for the approximate calculation of obliquely blown rotating bodies, GAMM-Tagung Munich, 1953 and Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften, Vol. 8, 1954, pp. 201-214
personal data
SURNAME Erdmann, Siegfried F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aerospace engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2002
Place of death Pijnacker