Theodore von Karman, the “Martian’ Who Changed the Way We Fly
Philip Handleman
Theodore von Karman, center, is fashionably attired in suit and Panama hat as he scribbles last-minute calculations on the Ercoupe’s wing prior to a jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) flight test at March Field, Calif., in August 1941. More than a decade earlier, he similarly scribbled equations on the side of a streetcar. Then, the result of his impromptu figuring was his monumental law of turbulence. This time, the effect was to jumpstart the U.S. missile and space programs. Looking on, from the left, are team members Clark Millikan, California Institute of Technology professor and son of Caltech’s leader, Martin Summerfield, a close von Karman associate and former graduate student, Frank Malina, another close von Karman associate who as a graduate student pushed for rocket-related experiments, and Army Air Corps Capt. Homer Boushey, the JATO project’s test pilot who had studied under von Karman. Note the Wright Field arrowhead sewn into Boushey’s leather jacket. Also, note that as von Karman scrawls with his right hand, his left hand holds a cigar. (NASA photo)
Theodore von Karman,
the "Martian" Who Changed the Way We FlyÂÂ
The “Martians”
The brilliant aerodynamicist Theodore von Karman was one of five groundbreaking Hungarian scientists who moved to America to escape the ravages of Nazism. The others were: Edward Teller, the Manhattan Project researcher who later led development of the hydrogen bomb; Leo Szilard, the deep thinker who envisaged the chain reaction that made nuclear weapons and power plants a reality; Eugene Wigner, the theorist who perceived the symmetries in quantum mechanics for which he received the Nobel Prize; and John von Neumann, the mathematics whiz whose constructs gave birth to the computer.
At the beginning of his sweeping memoir that covers the revolution in physics during the 20th century, Teller dedicated the book to his fellow émigrés and lifelong friends, the transplanted scientists who, like him, had thrived in their adopted country. Operating within their own specialties, each of the five exceptional men contributed uniquely to major technical developments that changed the world in ways few imagined possible. For their unorthodox ideas that profoundly influenced the lives of so many people, they were accorded an offbeat sobriquet that they wore as a badge of honor.
Teller explained: “In jest, they were called the Martians. No accolade gives me so great a pleasure as that I was counted among them.”
A Prodigy Makes His Mark
On May 11, 1881, Theodore von Karman was born in Budapest where, as he later wrote, “Horse-drawn droshkies carried silk-gowned women and their Hussar counts in red uniforms and furred hats through the ancient war-scarred hills.” It was a charmed time in the city, a period of economic prosperity and cultural renaissance.
The third of five children, von Karman was raised in a nurturing home where schooling held sway as the top priority. His father, Maurice, was an intense and learned man who served
as Secretary-General of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Education. His mother, Helen, was descended from a long line of scholars that included a famous 16th century mathematician.
Hints of the youngster’s prodigious talents were evidenced early in his life. During shindigs at the family home in Budapest, when von Karman was only six years old, relatives congregated around him in the manner of carnival-goers. The lad entertained his kin and other visitors by calculating savantstyle the answers to random six-digit multiplication exercises.
The adults in the room would do the math in the usual laborious way with benefit of pencil and paper, and invariably the boy’s answers proved correct. His father was appalled by this “freak show” treatment and feared that his son might suffer mental stultification if permitted to fixate on mathematics. Accordingly, Maurice forbade the boy from such games and even from tudying advanced mathematics until years later. The father decreed that . . .
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