Harlan D. Fowler (1895-1982) was an American inventor, writer, and airplane engineer who invented the variable wing area Fowler flap used on many commercial aircraft today.
The Fowler flap combines a translation and a rotation. The flap splits and slides backwards, then rotates down creating one or more slots. These movements increase the wing's curvature which increases cord and camber.[3] The high-lift Fowler flap is located on the trailing edge of an airplane wing which increases wing area, lift, and drag.[4] The flap often forms part of the upper surface of the wing similar to a plain flap or a split flap, but upon extension it slides rearward before lowering. Fowler flaps always feature one or more slots. The Fowler flap complex movement requires special guidance systems on the lower surface, called "flap rails". The Fowler flap itself can be in several parts, with several slots.[5]
Starting in the summer of 1927 with mechanic Stanley Crowfoot, Fowler privately designed, tested, and funded the development of the Fowler flap. Testing by Fred Weick at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) realized the Fowler flap would reduce landing speed, decrease landing and take-off runs, and improve climbing ability. The first aircraft to use the Fowler flap included the Martin 146 prototype in 1935, the German Fieseler Fi 97, and the Lockheed Super Electra in 1937.[6] Other early adopters of the Fowler flap included the Boeing B-17, B-29, and Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Many modern commercial aircraft use Fowler flaps. In 1948 Fowler published the text, Fowler Flaps for Airplanes: An Engineering Handbook.[4]
Harlan D. Fowler, local bank clerk will become aeronautical engineer
In May 1929, Fowler started the Fowler Airplane Wings Inc. hoping to market his Fowler flap just prior to the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[10] Fowler started his own company purchasing $50,000 of new shares on 17 December 1941, not to be confused with the WWI company Fowler Airplane Corporation, he became president of the Fowler Aircraft Company from the insolvent Hardman Aircraft Products Inc. of San Diego, CA.[11]
Despite having hearing difficulties and used a hearing aid, he continually lobbied the NACA with multiple ideas to improve aircraft. NACA engineer Ken Mort would help Fowler build models and test many of his aeronautical concepts. Ahead of his time, Fowler developed his flap designed when airplanes were still covered with fabric.[12] Harlan Fowler retired in 1975 and died on April 27, 1982.[4] His original research papers including technical reports, blueprints, original data, drawings, photographs, models of the Fowler flap, and air cargo container models are archived at San Jose State University. San Jose State University's Harlan D. Fowler Memorial Scholarship is named in his honor.[13] He holds at least four patents.[14]
Harlan D. Fowler, Fowler flaps for airplanes, an engineering handbook, Los Angeles, Wetzel Publications, 6 May 1948
Harlan Davey Fowler , Camels to California: A Chapter in Western Transportation , Vol. 7, Stanford University Press,1950, 93 p..
Harlan Davey Fowler , Three caravans to Yuma: the untold story of Bactrian camels in western America , AH Clark Co.,1980, 173 p. ( ISBN0-87062-131-9 , ISBN978-0-87062-131-4 ).
The Whitcomb area rule, named after NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb and also called the transonic area rule, is a design procedure used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic speeds which occur between about Mach 0.75 and 1.2. For supersonic speeds a different procedure called the supersonic area rule, developed by NACA aerodynamicist Robert Jones, is used.
Richard Travis Whitcomb was an American aeronautical engineer who was noted for his contributions to the science of aerodynamics.
Robert T. Jones,, was an American aerodynamicist and aeronautical engineer for NACA and later NASA. He was known at NASA as "one of the premier aeronautical engineers of the twentieth century".
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Ira H. Abbott was an American aerospace engineer. After graduating from MIT, Abbott started working for Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1929. He contributed significantly to the establishment of high-speed research programs and published numerous technical reports on aerodynamics. He eventually attained the post of assistant chief of research at Langley in 1945.
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Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is similar, but deals with the electronics side of aerospace engineering.
The Ryan YO-51 Dragonfly was an observation aircraft designed and built by Ryan Aeronautical for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A single-engined parasol wing monoplane, it was designed for optimum STOL capability, but although three prototypes proved highly successful in testing, the Stinson YO-49 was judged superior and no production contract was placed.
Richard C. Scherrer (1919–2018) was an aircraft designer notable for pioneering work on revolutionary aircraft designs with extremely low radar cross sections that led to the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit.
Paul Richard Hill (1909–1990) was a mid–twentieth-century American aerodynamicist. He was a leading research and development engineer and manager for NASA and its predecessor, NACA between 1939 and 1970, retiring as Associate Chief, Applied Materials and Physics Division at the NASA Langley Research Center. He is arguably most widely known today as the author of Unconventional Flying Objects: a Scientific Analysis.
Robert Hauschild Liebeck is an American aerodynamicist, professor and aerospace engineer. Until retiring from his position as senior fellow at the Boeing Company. in 2020, he oversaw their Blended Wing Body ("BWB") program. He has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1992, where he is an AIAA Honorary Fellow, the organization’s highest distinction. He is best known for his contributions to aircraft design and his pioneering airfoil designs known as the "Liebeck Airfoil". Since his retirement he remains active in aviation industry associations and continues to teach at UCI.
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Lewis August Rodert (1906–1973) of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was awarded the 1946 Collier Trophy for the design, development, and practical application of a thermal aircraft anti-icing system. NACA icing research leader from 1936 to 1945. Lew built his own de-icing systems on a Lockheed 12A and a Curtiss C-46 creating a flying de-ice laboratory.
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