Franz Xaver Wortmann (September 24, 1921 - January 16, 1985) was a German

aerodynamicist Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

Early life

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Wortmann spent time as a pilot and observer with the German Air Force. He then studied physics in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and Stuttgart. After graduating in the field of fluid theory he completed his doctorate as an engineer in 1955. His habilitation followed in 1963. Together with Richard Eppler and Dieter Althaus, Wortmann carried out ground-breaking work in the late 1950s and the 1960s in the field of development of laminar flow airfoil profiles using the inverse design method. His wing profile designs are known by the FX (for Franz Xaver) in their code. These wing profiles were used in many of the first and second generation of fibre-reinforced plastic gliders. By the early 1970s, many successful designs of glider had a wing based on a Wortmann profile. In 1974 Wortmann took over the leadership of the Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics at the University of Stuttgart. He mainly investigated questions of

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

References

External links

Literature by and about Franz Xaver Wortmann in the German National Library catalogue.
1921 births 1985 deaths Aerodynamicists German aerospace engineers Academic staff of the University of Stuttgart Luftwaffe pilots {{Germany-scientist-stub