Eastman Jacobs
Encyclopedia
NACA
- Organizations :* National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of the U.S. federal agency NASA* National Association for Campus Activities, an organization for programmers of university and college activities...
's Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base...
from the 1920s to the 1940s. He was responsible for advancing many fields in aerodynamics, dealing particularly with wind tunnels, airfoils, turbulence
Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
, boundary layers, and Schlieren photography
Schlieren photography
Schlieren photography is a visual process that is used to photograph the flow of fluids of varying density. Invented by the German physicist August Toepler in 1864 to study supersonic motion, it is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects...
.
Biography
Eastman Jacobs joined NACANACA
- Organizations :* National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of the U.S. federal agency NASA* National Association for Campus Activities, an organization for programmers of university and college activities...
in 1925 after earning a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. He quickly became one of the leading scientists at the Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base...
due to his work with optimizing airfoils using a variable density wind tunnel that could operate with high Reynolds numbers. He was also officially the head of the Variable Density Wind Tunnel Division from 1928-1939. He and his colleagues were able to significantly reduce the turbulence in the wind tunnel, which led to a better understanding of boundary development around airfoil sections. A better knowledge of boundary layer growth then led to an optimization scheme for low-drag laminar flow
Laminar flow
Laminar flow, sometimes known as streamline flow, occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between the layers. At low velocities the fluid tends to flow without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide past one another like playing cards. There are no cross currents...
airfoils. This optimization scheme produced the NACA 4-digit airfoils that led to faster aircraft like the P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1933 and 1937, he received the Wright Brothers Medal
Wright Brothers Medal
Conceived of in 1924 by the Dayton Section of the SAE, the SAE established Wright Brothers Medal in 1927 to recognize individuals who have made notable contributions in the engineering design, development, or operation of air and space vehicles...
and the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award, respectively, for his improvement of airfoils.
By the 1930s, Jacobs became interested in high-speed wind tunnels, and helped to build one of the first in the United States. He became the first person to observe a shock wave
Shock wave
A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
propagating over an airfoil using Schlieren photography
Schlieren photography
Schlieren photography is a visual process that is used to photograph the flow of fluids of varying density. Invented by the German physicist August Toepler in 1864 to study supersonic motion, it is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects...
. In 1935, he was invited to the now famous fifth Volta Conference
Volta Conference
The Volta Conference was the name given to each of the international conferences held in Italy by the Royal Academy of Science in Rome, and funded by the Alessandro Volta Foundation...
on aerodynamics titled "High Velocities in Aviation". There, he gave a presentation on high-speed wind tunnels and his Schlieren images which exposed the technology to the rest of the world.
In 1933, Jacobs became quite possibly the first person to fly in the eye of a Hurricane. While at Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, Jacobs tied his Pitcairn airplane into the wind to prevent damage and took shelter while the eye approached. When the eye crossed over, Jacobs took off and flew inside the eye as the storm decreased in power as it traveled inland. He then landed and tied the plane down facing the opposite direction, but into the now reversed direction of wind. This was done, in his words, "to save the airplane". There were no witnesses to the act, and the credit for the first person to fly in the eye of a hurricane went to Joseph Duckworth
Joseph Duckworth
Joseph B. Duckworth was a colonel in the United States Air Force, and was regarded as the "father" of modern instrument flight...
some 10 years later.
Later in his career, he delved into using jet/atomic hybrid propulsion for aircraft. After discovering advancements in the field of jet power were not being shared by NACA, he retired at an early age of 42 in 1944.
After retiring, Jacobs settled down on a Malibu ranch with his mother, Alice Nixon Jacobs. He would occupy his time building airplanes, steam engines, boats and telescopes. He would later open a restaurant on the coast of Malibu at the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
/Ventura County Line, currently known as Neptune's Net.
Personal life
Jacobs married Ivy Allison Willson in 1922. They had three children, Phyllis, Eastman ("Bud") Jr., and Dorothy. In 1959 he remarried, marrying Melba Shackelford and had two children, John and Theodore ("Ted"). He also had two other daughters, Mary and Doris (Julie) with Celia Epstein, a notable mathematician for the US government.Awards
- 1933 Wright Brothers MedalWright Brothers MedalConceived of in 1924 by the Dayton Section of the SAE, the SAE established Wright Brothers Medal in 1927 to recognize individuals who have made notable contributions in the engineering design, development, or operation of air and space vehicles...
- 1937 Sylvanus Albert Reed Award (Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences)