November 3, 1891: Nikolai Zhukovsky proved the feasibility of performing a "loop-the-loop"
"Father of Russian Aviation" Nikolay Zhukovsky In his report "On the Soaring of Birds," he demonstrated the ability of a glider to perform a "loop-the-loop." Twenty-one years later, pilot Nesterov became the first person in the world to accomplish this feat.
A human being has no wings and is 72 times weaker than a bird in terms of body weight to muscle weight. But he will fly, relying on the power of his mind.
By that time, 44-year-old Zhukovsky was a respected Moscow professor and doctor of applied mathematics.
He moved to Moscow from a village near Vladimir, studied at the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University, and made a scientific career in mechanics.
After 40, he became interested in aerodynamics, attempting to calculate the lift of a propeller or wing. To this end, he opened a small aerodynamics laboratory in his office.
Report "On the Soaring of Birds"
He delivered his famous paper, "On the Soaring of Birds," at the Moscow Mathematical Society. Analyzing birds' ability to stay aloft with outstretched wings, he theoretically substantiated the possibility of a glider performing a loop-the-loop. According to his calculations, to perform this maneuver, a heavier-than-air craft doesn't require significant engine thrust—it simply requires the correct use of gravity, inertia, and wing lift.
The scientific community and the general public viewed Zhukovsky's ideas with skepticism. At the end of the 19th century, the idea of creating heavier-than-air aircraft still seemed utopian to many, even educated people. Colleagues considered his passion frivolous. Moscow newspapers and intellectual circles openly ridiculed Zhukovsky: in caricatures, the venerable professor was given bird wings.
Despite this, Zhukovsky did not abandon his research. He called solving complex engineering and mathematical problems "the poetry of flight."
Together with his students, he created one of the world's first wind tunnels for conducting scientific experiments.
Institute in Kuchino
In 1904, in the Moscow region Kuchino with the help of a patron Dmitry Ryabushinsky and under Zhukovsky's leadership the first aerodynamic institute in Europe was founded.
There he substantiated the theory of wing lift—before this, all aircraft were built "by eye," which often led to disasters. He was the first in the world (along with a German scientist Martin Kutta) mathematically explained why an airplane stays in the air and developed the vortex theory of a wing: when a wing moves in the air, a circulation of flow occurs around it, creating an aerodynamic lift force.
A few years later, Zhukovsky formulated the law of speed distribution at the propeller blade, which would later help aircraft designers in their work.
He was a pioneer not only in aerodynamics but also in hydrodynamics. He investigated the causes of failures in the Moscow water supply system. He concluded that ruptures were caused by hydraulic shock—the shock wave generated by the compression of water when main valves were suddenly opened or closed.
His theory made it possible to identify potential pipe damage locations based on instrument readings at water pumping stations, thereby preventing accidents.
During the First World War, he studied the ballistics of artillery shells and developed a theory of bombing.
He taught and supported youth clubs. Among his students were future aviation legends, including Andrey Tupolev.
In life, he was a gentle man, unpretentious in his daily life. Until he was 65, he lived with his mother, a woman of strict principles. Because of this, he was unable to start his own family for a long time. Although he had a son and daughter by a peasant woman who served as their servant, he began living with them only after his mother's death in 1912.
In 1918, three years before his death and at the height of the Civil War, the Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) opened in Moscow.
In 1920, on the 50th anniversary of Zhukovsky's scientific career, Lenin signed a decree officially naming him "the father of Russian aviation." The institute was provided with subsidies that guaranteed its survival during the famine.
Last years
In the last months of his life he was seriously ill—he suffered strokes, typhoid fever, and pneumonia—but he continued to advise his students.
He died at 1921, in 74.
