Winners of the professor N.E.Zhukovsky Contest: The Best in Aviation Theory
18 January 2018
How to simulate the behavior of an aircraft in the trailing vortex of another aircraft? What research is effective to calculate quickly the characteristics of the engines? What are special aspects of the modern view on flight dynamics of a highly automated aircraft? Russian scientists, the winners of the annual professor N.E. Zhukovsky Contest answered these and other questions in their scientific works. As is tradition, the event was organized by the Zhukovsky Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI, a member of the National Research Center “Zhukovsky Institute”).
The award ceremony took place January 17 and opened the Jubilee year of the Russian Center for Aeronautical Science. The event took place at the scientific and technical information center of TsAGI attended by representatives of the aviation industry and the media.
The first-degree award in the nomination “For the best work on the theory of aviation” went to the authors of the work, “Trailing vortex: Theoretical and computational studies of the aircraft dynamics near a trailing vortex; piloted simulation.” The work was done by the TsAGI team of scientists A.M. Gayfullin, O.V. Animitce, A.A. Kornjakov, and Y.N. Sviridenko. “It is dangerous for any airplane to enter a trailing vortex of another airplane,” explained the Chief scientific Officer of TsAGI’s Department of aerodynamics and aircraft missiles, and a corresponding member of RAS Aleksandr Gayfullin. “It may cause a crisis in flight or even a crash. To prevent a disaster it is necessary for pilots to work on ground piloting skills under such difficult conditions. Our goal was to create a mathematical model of the aerodynamics of the airplane caught in the trailing vortex, and to use this model later in flight simulators.”
“Gas dynamics and performance prediction of a continuous thermal intake” received the second-degree award. TsAGI scientists A. Markelov and A. Semenov are the authors of the work. They proposed a mathematical model of calculating the engine parameters for a given type of fuel. An important achievement is the possibility of defining these characteristics at high supersonic speeds. The research has already found its practical application in enterprises of the aviation industry.
The publication “Flight Dynamics” is a joint work of scientists of the Moscow Aviation Institute (national research University) and TsAGI. It was awarded the prize in the category of outstanding tutorial. The authors A.V. Efremov V.N. Ovcharenko, V.L. Sukhanov, and U.F. Sheljuhin dealt with questions of calculation and analysis of the performance characteristics of an aircraft’s stability and controllability. The publication is significant due to the fact, that a number of problems reviewed were mentioned for the first time in academic literature. For example, they described airplane aerodynamics when passing from wind-tunnel testing to a full-scale aircraft. They observed the influence of air traffic control for the optimal flight modes of transport vessels, as well as on the effectiveness of economic performances of cruise flight and others.
The professor N.E. Zhukovsky Contest was established December 2, 1920 by the Decision of the Council of People’s Commissars, “To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the scientific work of Professor N.E. Zhukovsky.” The jury, composed of leading scientists, academicians and corresponding members of the RAS, choose the best works of Russian scientists in the field of aviation, including aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, combustion theory, theory of reliability of aircraft and engines. TsaGI is in charge of organizing the event.