Eastman Jacobs facts for kids
Eastman Jacobs (1902–1987) was a very smart scientist who studied how air moves around objects. This field is called aerodynamics. He worked for a government group called NACA from the 1920s to the 1940s. NACA later became NASA. Jacobs helped improve many areas of flight science. He worked a lot with wind tunnels, which are special tubes that create strong airflows to test aircraft parts. He also studied airfoils (the shapes of wings), turbulence (bumpy airflow), and boundary layers (the thin layer of air right next to a surface). He even used a special camera technique called Schlieren photography to see how air moved.
His Life and Amazing Work
Eastman Jacobs started working at NACA in 1925. He had just finished his degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He quickly became a top scientist at the Langley Research Center.
He was great at making airplane wings (airfoils) better. He used a special wind tunnel that could change how dense the air was inside it. This helped him understand how air flowed around wings. From 1928 to 1939, he was even in charge of this special wind tunnel.
Jacobs and his team made the wind tunnel much smoother. This helped them learn more about how air sticks to and flows over wing surfaces. This knowledge led to new wing designs that had very little drag. These designs were called NACA 4-digit airfoils. They made planes like the P-51 Mustang much faster during World War II. In 1937, he won an award for his work on improving airfoils.
In the 1930s, Jacobs became interested in very fast wind tunnels. He helped build one of the first ones in the United States. He was the first person to actually see a shock wave moving over a wing. He used his special Schlieren photography for this. In 1935, he shared his discoveries at a big meeting in Italy. This showed the world how important his work was.
Later in his career, he designed a special type of jet aircraft. It was called "Jake's Jeep." But NACA decided not to continue this project. He retired early in 1944 when he was 42 years old.
After retiring, he opened a restaurant in 1958 called "Panorama Pacific at Solimar." It was near the ocean in Malibu. People in the 1960s knew it as "Jake's Diner." Today, that restaurant is still open and is called "Neptune's Net". Eastman Jacobs passed away on Father's Day in 1987.
Awards
- Wright Brothers Medal – 1933
