Nikolai Zhukovsky is a well-known Russian scientist who is most famous in the field of mechanics, is considered the founder of aero- and hydrodynamics. His career fell at the beginning of the 20th century, he was an honored professor at Moscow University, the Imperial School, and was a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Biography of a scientist
Nikolai Zhukovsky was born in the Vladimir province in 1847. He was born in the small village of Orekhovo. The father of the hero of our article was a staff captain, had a scientific degree as a military engineer. Nikolai Zhukovsky's mother's name was Anna Nikolaevna Stechkina.
In 1858, Nikolai became a student of the Fourth Moscow Gymnasium. He expected to become a railway engineer, like his father, but the limited financial means of his parents did not allow him to send a teenager to study at the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways. The tuition fee at Moscow University wasmuch lower, so he stayed to study in it.
Education
In 1864, Nikolai Zhukovsky graduated from the gymnasium with a silver medal, for which he was enrolled without exams in the physics and mathematics department of the capital's university. He received a diploma in applied mechanics, and two years later he nevertheless made an attempt to enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways, but did not pass the entrance tests.
Since 1870, Zhukovsky began teaching at the Second Moscow Women's Gymnasium. He lectures in physics. The following year, he manages to pass his master's exams to start teaching mathematics, and a year later, mechanics. He teaches these disciplines to students of the capital's higher technical school.
An important event in the biography of Nikolai Zhukovsky takes place in 1876, when he defends his master's thesis on the kinematics of a liquid body. The hero of our article became a Doctor of Applied Mathematics in 1882 with a work on the strength of motion.
Career
In the future, the career and biography of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky are developing quite successfully. In 1879, he became a supernumerary professor of mechanics, since 1885 he has been simultaneously teaching at the capital's university. He lectures in fluid dynamics and soon earns an Extraordinary Professorship in the Department of Applied Mechanics.
Since 1887, Zhukovsky has been a full-time professor at the Moscow Higher Technical School, moreoverhe has taught practical mechanics at the Academy of Commercial Sciences for a long time and teaches at an engineering school affiliated with the Department of Railways.
Telling a brief biography of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, it should be noted that in 1893 he received the status of a real state councilor, and a year later became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.
Aerodynamic research
In 1902, Zhukovsky began to study aerodynamics in depth. He is working on the creation of a wind tunnel operating on a suction type. The research was carried out on the basis of the mechanical office of the capital's university. In 1904, Zhukovsky became the head of the Aerodynamic Institute, which was the first in Europe. It was created in Kuchino near Moscow at the expense of another scientist - Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky.
In 1905, the hero of our article was elected head of the Moscow Mathematical Society. Three years later, he became known as the founder of the aeronautical circle, in which many well-known researchers in the future took their first steps - Vetchinkin, Arkhangelsky, Musinyants, Stechkin, Sabinin, Yuryev, Tupolev. Soon Zhukovsky himself began to head the aerodynamic laboratory created on the basis of this school.
Published Works
Since 1916, Zhukovsky has been in charge of the Design and Test Bureau at the same aerodynamic laboratory. In particular, methods for calculating the strength of aircraft are being developed on its basis. The conclusions to which he arrived were detailed in his papers en titled"Dynamics of airplanes in an elementary presentation", "Proceedings of the Calculation and Testing Bureau", "Investigation of the stability of the design of airplanes".
Also, with his direct participation, recruitment was announced for aviation courses, which already in 1919 were transformed into the Moscow Aviation College, and eventually into the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet. In the future, they became known as the Air Force Academy, and then the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.
Anniversary of scientific activity
In 1920, the 50th anniversary of the scientific activity of the hero of our article was widely celebrated, at that time Nikolai Zhukovsky was already officially called the father of Russian aviation. A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, signed by Vladimir Lenin, appeared on the establishment of the Zhukovsky Prize for outstanding works in mathematics and mechanics, the works of the scientist himself were published, he himself received a number of benefits for his merits.
Zhukovsky died in 1921 at the age of 74. He is buried in the cemetery on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery of the capital.
Scientific activity
Now let's take a closer look at the biography of the professor, the father of Russian aviation - Nikolai Zhukovsky, talk about his work and achievements.
An article titled "The Application of the Theory of Higher-Order Acceleration Centers to the Chebyshev Guiding Mechanism", which was published in 1883, played a big role. When writing it, Zhukovsky used the apparatus for accelerating higher orders to the theory of mechanisms. ATin particular, he sought to solve the problem of synthesizing the guiding mechanism of Chebyshev himself.
In 1890, his publication on Kirchhoff's methods, devoted to the motion of a fluid in several dimensions, under the condition of maintaining a constant velocity given on an unknown streamline, acquired great importance. It was published in the mathematical collection of the Moscow State University. In the same year, an attempt was made by scientists to develop the theoretical foundations for determining the lift force of a propeller or wing. For this, Zhukovsky wrote a work called "On the theory of flying".
Fundamentals of Aviation Science
It should be noted that the main achievements of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky are that his ideas served as the basis on which all aviation science developed in the future.
In particular, he carefully studied the dynamics of bird flights, and in 1891 made a report on this. The work en titled "On the Soaring of Birds" was presented on November 3. The following year, another report appeared on Chernushenko's flying projectile. Zhukovsky also compiled key equations for determining the center of gravity of a planning body under the condition of a constant angle of attack, he described the trajectories of various conditions of air movement, including the possibility of a dead loop in detail.
In 1895, Zhukovsky visited Germany, where he had a productive meeting with one of the pioneers of aeronautics, Otto Lilienthal. Nikolai Yegorovich bought a glider from him for holdingfurther research.
Current projects
It is worth noting that at the same time, the scientist paid great attention to various ongoing projects. For example, at the end of the 19th century, he studied the causes of an accident that occurred on the capital's water supply. Based on the results of this study, he made a detailed report at a meeting of engineers and scientists in the Polytechnic Society. In particular, he was devoted to the phenomenon of water hammer. Zhukovsky revealed all its mechanisms, deduced formulas that connected pressure, flow velocity, density with dependence on the radius of the pipe, and also considered different options depending on the distance and time of the considered section, selected coordinates.
In 1898 he took part in the Congress of Domestic Naturalists and Doctors, where he read a review report en titled "On Aeronautics". In the same year, he developed economical principles for level flight. The hero of our article described them in detail in his study "About winged propellers".
Lectures and theorems
The contribution to science of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky is difficult to overestimate. In 1904, he formulated a theorem that considered in detail the quantitative magnitude of the force required to lift an aircraft into the air. In particular, with its help, it was possible to determine in detail the key profiles of the propeller blades and wings of the aircraft, to develop the theory of the propeller.
The following year, many noted Zhukovsky's report on attached vortices. It is believed that thisthe work laid the foundation for the development of methods for determining the lift force of an airplane wing. These discoveries were published by him already in 1906 in a work devoted to the fall of oblong bodies in the air.
Many of his studies became the basis of various lectures. For example, from 1910 to 1912 he taught a course on the theoretical foundations of aeronautics. In it, the father of Russian aviation, Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, managed to systematize his experimental research and theoretical work done on the basis of the Kuchinsky Institute. They also paid attention to Chaplygin's research. In particular, a special apparatus has been developed to solve problems of flow around the wing.
In the period from 1912 to 1916, Zhukovsky developed the principle of speed distribution at the propeller blade, which as a result became the basic basis for future propellers.
During the First World War, Nikolai Yegorovich was engaged in the substantiation of the theory of bombing, investigated the ballistics of artillery shells.
Opinion on the theory of relativity
It is interesting that in his scientific works and statements he repeatedly denied the theory of relativity. The theoretical justification can be found in his speech known as "Old Mechanics in New Physics". It was delivered in March 1918 at one of the meetings of the Mathematical Society in Moscow.
In particular, Zhukovsky noted that in 1905 Einstein stood ona metaphysical point of view that elevated the solution of a mathematical problem to a physical reality. The Russian scientist himself expressed his conviction that the problems of electromagnetic theory and light speeds could be solved with the help of the mechanics of Newton and Galileo. On this basis, he called the importance of Einstein's work in this area dubious.
This topic has interested him for many years, was the subject of numerous disputes and discussions, and was often discussed at seminars and lectures.
