Life of Oskar Schrenk

[Genghis the Engineer]

I was just writing something about the Schrenk lift distribution, when it occurred to me that for a name so well known I knew nothing at-all about it's owner.

A brief web search seems to show Oskar Schrenk as having worked for NACA from roughly 1920-1940 (from his publications) and then presumably returned to a native Germany as he crops up teaching flight mechanics at a German research institute from 1943-1944.

And that, basically, seems to be all I can find out about him. For somebody who made such significant contributions to aerodynamics (his NACA paper listings are very impressive, and anybody who has ever stressed a wing knows his lift distribution).

Does anybody know anything more about the lift of Oskar Schrenk? I'd be fascinated to know if there's anything to share.

[Genghis the Engineer]

433 views on PPrune, and nobody knows anything about Herr Schrenk. All the more fascinating.

G

[Rosevidney1]

I bet we all tried our hardest! ;)

[dubbleyew eight]

well you try finding anything on Jistinius Clark, he of the Clark Y aerofoil.

the big black hole in aviation is aeronautical engineering. not many understand it and not many have a clue about its contributors over the years.
many aircraft designs are somewhat incompetent but this will remain the situation because there is simply no real widespread understanding of the engineering behind aircraft.

one of the reasons people like the American FAR's is because most of the theoretical work behind them is available on the NASA Technical Report Server.
The NACA reports are all there.

Schrenk?? I will ask around.

[Genghis the Engineer]

the big black hole in aviation is aeronautical engineering. not many understand it and not many have a clue about its contributors over the years.
many aircraft designs are somewhat incompetent but this will remain the situation because there is simply no real widespread understanding of the engineering behind aircraft.

Amen!

It's one of the reason I'm a big fan of the new Journal of Aeronautical History - we're starting to see some really good papers of serious analysis of aspects of the history of aeronautical engineering. The life of Hermann Glauert (http://aerosociety.com/Assets/Docs/Publications/The%20Journal%20of%20Aeronautical%20History/2011-02HermannGlauert-Ackroyd2.pdf) paper last year was really interesting for example.

But OS still eludes me!

G

[onetrack]

Ghengis, it looks like you may now have a interesting job for your retirement years, compiling the definitive book of Oscar Schrenks life and achievements - as it appears his work has never been fully documented anywhere, nor has he been given the recognition he deserves for his substantial contributions to the aviation engineering knowledge base.
He's not alone - there are plenty of pioneers and leaders in many industries whose work has gone virtually unnoticed and unlauded - even though the results of that work are enjoyed by many, without a thought for the researcher who discovered the principles utilised.

It's possible, that because Schrenk was German, and always saw himself as German (despite his substantial amount of work in the U.S.), there may be records in Germany of Shrenks life, that have never been translated into English.
As a result these are often overlooked by researchers in English-speaking countries. It's also possible that many German records relating to Schrenks life were obliterated during WW2 bombing.
Many records have yet to be put up for easy online access, and lie in dusty shelves of institutions and museums and Govt record depts - which records require actual legwork, to unearth.

[Volume]

the big black hole in aviationIf O.S. disappeared in Germany in an aviation research Institute during the peak time of the bomb raids, then a big black hole, created by an allied bomb, might be exactly where he ended...

[India Four Two]

I bet we all tried our hardest!

I certainly did and although I did not find much new, it was fascinating to read about someone I had never heard of, but then I don't calculate lift-distributions for a living. ;)

I read his paper on lift-distribution - what a clever approximation, although I have to admit I didn't delve into the twisted-wing section of the paper too deeply - a bit much for an idle lunch-time!

I also see he looked into boundary layer control by suction and also, a flap that was subsequently independently invented by Dan Gurney - the Gurney Flap. I hadn't heard of that either. Thanks for the education, Genghis.

There's a rather dry article on the Gurney Flap in Wikipedia and a much more interesting one here: The Gurney Flap | Dan Gurney's All American Racers (http://allamericanracers.com/the-gurney-flap/)


Genghis, I did have one more search before replying and I did stumble on this, on the website of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer in Vienna:

Independent of the Laboratory for Aeromechanics and Airshipping a chair for Fluid Mechanics was founded in 1941. The position was held by by Oskar Tietjens until 1945. He was assisted, from 1943 to 1945, by Oskar Schrenk who was teaching flight mechanics.

Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer (http://www.fluid.tuwien.ac.at/history)

So it looks like he may have survived the war. Perhaps the Institute has some information about him?

[4Greens]

Check out the National Airspace Library at the RAeS website. They have tons of material.

[celsofaria]

Hi there !

I study at ITA (Aeronautic Technology Institut) in Brazil, and Mr. Schrenk was a professor here from 1948 to 1965.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Hi there !

I study at ITA (Aeronautic Technology Institut) in Brazil, and Mr. Schrenk was a professor here from 1948 to 1965.
Thank you Celsofaria - that answers a very big question that was in my mind.

Should you be able to share any other history you happen to know about him - whilst I can't promise to ever do anything useful with it, I will certainly read it with great interest.

G

[Mechta]

He gets a mention here to: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6EF9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1188&lpg=PA1188&dq=oskar+schrenk&source=bl&ots=SF-09vUVUm&sig=hPU6sS-V15GX6mx0A8tmm_VaDQw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj07sKw_LrSAhVpBsAKHUysDawQ6AEIKDAC#v=onepage&q=oskar%20schrenk&f=false

As there is no mention of him working in the USA, a check to see if other aerodynamicists known not to have worked in the US, have had there works published by NACA, might dispel the idea of him working there.

[Pittsextra]

You can buy copies of the German Zeitschrift für Flugtechnik und Motorluftschiffahrt (ZFM) here Historische Luftfahrtliteratur für jeden - Zeitschriften (Flugsport, ZFM, ...) (http://aviaebooks.de/page1.html)