The 'Father of Russian Aviation' who gave aerodynamics its mathematical foundations, built Russia's first wind tunnel, and founded TsAGI
While contemporary scientists scoffed at human flight, Zhukovsky proved mathematically in his 1891 lecture 'On the Soaring of Birds' that a glider could perform a 'dead loop'; twenty-two years later, Nesterov completed that proof in the sky.
Founder of Russian aviation science and father of modern fluid dynamics. He mathematically analyzed bird flight to formulate the circulation theory of lift, then built Russia's first wind tunnel at Moscow University in 1902. In 1904 he established Europe's first aerodynamic institute at Kuchino, and in 1918 he founded TsAGI, the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, which became the institutional bedrock of Soviet aviation and space science. His disciples Tupolev, Stechkin, and Yuryev led the Soviet aircraft industry, and it was Zhukovsky's school that transformed Tsiolkovsky's solitary theoretical work into a national scientific capability.
Career Timeline
- 1868Graduated Moscow University, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, in applied mechanics
- 1872Professor at Imperial Moscow Technical School in analytical mechanics, serving until 1920
- 1885Professor at Moscow University, lecturing in hydrodynamics and applied mechanics
- 1902Supervised construction of Russia's first suction-type wind tunnel at Moscow University
- 1904Founded and directed Europe's first aerodynamic institute at Kuchino, near Moscow
- 1908Founded the Aeronautical Circle at Moscow Technical School, later producing Tupolev, Stechkin, and Yuryev
- 1918Founded TsAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute), serving as its first director