George H. Bryan

George Hartley Bryan (1864–1928). The originator, with W. E.Williams, of the equations of airplane motion. Bryan's equations are the basis for the analysis of airplane flight dynamics and closed-loop control and for the design of flight simulators.

George Hartley Bryan FRS[1] (1 March 1864 – 13 October 1928) was an English applied mathematician who was an authority on thermodynamics and aeronautics. He was born in Cambridge, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, obtaining his BA in 1886 (as 5th wrangler), MA in 1890, and DSc in 1896.[2] He was a professor at University College of North Wales, and is generally credited with developing the modern mathematical treatment of the motion of airplanes in flight as rigid bodies with six degrees of freedom.

Aside from minor differences in notation, Bryan's 1911 equations are the same as those used today to evaluate modern aircraft. (Perhaps surprisingly, Bryan's equations—published just eight years after the first aircraft flew—are most accurate when applied to supersonic jets.) In evaluating aircraft mathematically, Bryan focused on issues of aerodynamic stability rather than on control; stability and control of an aircraft tend to lie on opposite ends of the same spectrum. Bryan's aeronautic results were an extension of his earlier work in fluid dynamics. In 1888, Bryan developed mathematical models for fluid pressures within a pipe and for external buckling pressures. These models are still used today.

  1. ^ b., L. (1933). "George Hartley Bryan. 1864–1928". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1 (2): 139–142. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1933.0011.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ancestry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).