GACLIT 75
Fall 2003
Fred E. C. Culick
Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion
Professor Culick’s principal research interests are in combustion, active control of combustion dynamics, nonlinear acoustics, and
propulsion.
In 1980 I started working in applied aerodynamics: teaching courses, doing a lot of historical research, and starting out on a project that is just now in its finishing stages. It really goes back to a day in 1977 when I took a boys’ ice hockey team down to San Diego for a pair of games. In between the morning and the afternoon games, I visited the San Diego Aerospace Museum to see the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Lindbergh flew solo, non-stop across the Atlantic.When I was there, I saw a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer, and had an epiphany of sorts. My adventures into finding out just why that airplane looks the way it looks—it’s highly unstable, and in fact what I think helped the Wright brothers the most is that they didn’t know just how dangerous it was—have taken me on a ride that has lasted two decades. In that time I built a 1/6 scale model of the 1903 Flyer which was tested in the GALCIT 10-foot wind tunnel, and have been involved in building two full-scale replicas in conjunction with AIAA projects, one of which I hope to fly before the end of this year. I have found it a fascinating endeavor to explain an historical object with current theoretical understanding and experimental techniques. This research niche—applying modern understanding to the behavior of older airplanes—has been very enjoyable.
