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Boltzmann and the Art of Flying

One of the less known aspects of the work of Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) is that he was an advocate of aviation, one of the most challenging technological problems at the end of the 19th century. Boltzmann followed the work of the flight pioneers Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), Wilhelm Kress (1836–1913), and Hiram S. Maxim (1840–1916) closely, and in a lecture in Vienna in 1894 and in a article in a Viennese newspaper in 1896 he advocated the provision of financial support for research in this field. I discuss Boltzmann’s involvement in aviation, and his related correspondence with Lilienthal and Kress.

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Correspondence to Silvio R. Dahmen.

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Silvio R. Dahmen is Associate Professor of Physics at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

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Dahmen, S.R. Boltzmann and the Art of Flying. Phys. Perspect. 11, 244–260 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0395-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0395-1

Keywords:

  • Ludwig Boltzmann
  • Otto Lilienthal
  • Wilhelm Kress
  • Hiram Stevens Maxim
  • Heinrich Hertz Hermann von Helmholtz
  • Josef Stefan
  • Gustav Jäger
  • Arthur Boltzmann
  • Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärtzte
  • physics
  • electromagnetism
  • aircraft
  • aviation