Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Manchester: An Account of the Facilities, Academic Curricula and Researeh Activities of the Mechanics of Fluids Department

Abstract

THE development of undergraduate teaching in Aeronautical Engineering at Manchester University has followed a different pattern from that in most other Universities in this country. Although Osborne Reynolds carried out his famous experiments in the Engineering Department at Manchester, the teaching of Aeronautical Engineering grew out of Mathematics rather than out of Engineering. For a large proportion of the past 80 years the Chair of Applied Mathematics has been held by men eminent in the field of Fluid Mechanics: Lamb, Goldstein and Lighthill must surely be names well‐known to every aeronautical engineer. It was due to the initiative of Professor S. Goldstein that a separate Department of Fluid Mechanics was set up in 1946 under the direction of Mr W. A. Mair. At first it was natural that the emphasis should be on experimental work to complement the theoretical work carried out in the Mathematics Department. Later, however, although close relations with the Mathematics Department were still maintained, the Mechanics of Fluids Department developed into a separate entity making both theoretical and experimental contributions to fundamental knowledge.

Citation

Hall, I.M. (1963), "Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Manchester: An Account of the Facilities, Academic Curricula and Researeh Activities of the Mechanics of Fluids Department", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 35 No. 10, pp. 297-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb033792