Nikolay Zhukovsky (scientist)
Russian scientist in mechanics and aerohydrodinamics
Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky (Russian: Никола́й Его́рович Жуко́вский, IPA: [ʐʊˈkofskʲɪj]; 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1847 – 17 March 1921) was a Russian scientist, mathematician and engineer, and a founding father of modern aero- and hydrodynamics. Whereas contemporary scientists scoffed at the idea of human flight, Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow. He is often called the Father of Russian Aviation.
The Joukowsky transform is named after him, while the fundamental aerodynamical theorem, the Kutta–Joukowski theorem, is named after both him and German mathematician Martin Kutta.
Life
Zhukovsky was born in the village of Orekhovo, Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire. In 1868 he graduated from Moscow University where he studied under August Davidov. From 1872 he was a professor at the Imperial Technical School. In 1904, he established the world's first Aerodynamic Institute in Kachino near Moscow. He was influenced by both Ernst Mach and his son Ludwig Mach. From 1918 he was the head of TsAGI (Central AeroHydroDynamics Institute).
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This entry incorporates text from “Nikolay Zhukovsky (scientist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.