Aerospace Propulsion Technology—A Fertile Source of Issues in Basic Fluid Mechanics

It is a defensible proposition that the advance of aerospace propulsion technology underlies the striking improvement in both performance and economy of commercial and military aerospace operations over the past fifty years. It is less well recognized that propulsion, as a result of the innovation that led to these advances, has introduced a large number of new, stimulating areas of inquiry in each of the basic disciplines of engineering science that form the basis of this technology. Of these, I believe that fluid mechanics and materials are the greatest benefactors. Here our interest is in the former and a few examples will clarify fluid mechanics indebtedness to the stimulation of propulsion technology.