Theodore Theodorsen (January 8, 1897 – November 5, 1978) was a Norwegian-American theoretical aerodynamicist noted for his work at NACA (the forerunner of NASA) and for his contributions to the study of turbulence.
When Theodore’s father took the examinations for a merchant marine engineer's license, he was the only applicant who correctly answered a particularly difficult question.
[citation needed] At age 16, after finishing compulsory schooling, Theodorsen attended gymnasium in the nearby town of Larvik.
Theodorsen's grades were so outstanding that he was admitted to the leading engineering university in Norway, the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim.
Theodorsen's thesis dealt with thermodynamic and aerodynamic themes that were to permeate much of his later work, which was developed in two parts: 1) shock waves and explosions and 2) combustion and detonation.
Langley NACA was then in the process of expanding its experimental facilities to include a Full Scale Wind Tunnel and a Hydrodynamic Towing Basin for testing flying boat hulls.
During World War II Theodorsen was called on for the analysis and troubleshooting of many aircraft problems and to help devise necessary modifications.
[4] The theory of arbitrary airfoils based on conformal mapping developed by Theodorsen, is a model of classical applied mathematics.
[5] Theodorsen's approach on flutter was also direct and clean, leading to an exact solution, as contrasted with previous implicit and approximate results.
It has enabled an engineering feel for the effects of variables and parameters in complex situations and has been available as a model against which approximate solutions can be compared.
Although Theodorsen leaned strongly toward basic theoretical analysis, he usually accompanied his work with experimental verification.
He was responsible for proposing a wind tunnel for flutter work that employed a mixture of air and freon with variable pressure to greatly increase the scope of research with aeroelastic models throughout the Mach range and with lower horsepower requirements.
[6] After leaving NACA in 1946, Theodorsen helped organize and administer the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (Aeronautical Institute of Technology) (1947–1950) in Brazil.
Theodorsen then became the Chief of Research for Republic Aviation Corporation, manufacturer of the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane of World War II, and the later F-84 Thunderjet and the F-105 Thunderchief, a post from which he retired in 1962 when he became an active consultant to Sikorsky Helicopter Corporation, where he specialized in ducted propeller work and helicopter rotors.
The mathematical entities of the Einstein development have been redefined into rational physical quantities and rearranged in an organized classical framework.