By Tony Fitzpatrick
April 20, 2001
Kurt H. Hohenemser, Dr.Ing., professor emeritus of aerospace engineering, contributor to the invention of the helicopter, environmental engineer and one of the University's most distinguished engineers died April 7, 2001, at age 95 in his St. Louis home.
"Kurt Hohenemser's impact on aerospace was immense, as was his impact on the people he taught and worked with," said David A. Peters, Ph.D., McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering and chair of mechanical engineering. "When he came to Washington University in 1966, we changed the depart-ment's name to 'mechanical engineering and aerospace.' He was aerospace. When he retired in 1975, it went back to 'mechanical engineering.' He could have taught any course we offered here."
Born in Germany in 1906, Hohenemser earned a doctorate from the Institute of Technology in Darmstadt in 1929. From 1930-34, he taught and conducted research at the University of Gottingen and studied under Ludwig Prandtl, one of the most famous aerodynamics physicists of the 20th century.
Hohenemser was relieved of his duties at the institute on the eve of Hitler's rise to power because a Nazi at the university considered him critical of Hitler and reported him and some colleagues to the Nazi party. In 1935, he began designing and testing helicopters with the Flettner Aircraft Co. in Berlin, when the famous German inventor Anton Flettner was exploring the concept. Their only competition came from another famous German helicopter developer, H. Focke.
In 1938, the first practical helicopter to be flown was a model Hohenemser and Flettner developed. It reached an altitude of several thousand feet and flew for nearly an hour. By the war's end, 20 helicopters bearing Hohenemser's design and analysis and Flettner's vision had been successfully flown.
At war's end, Hohenemser was discovered by an American engineer, who took his reports on the design of the Flettner helicopter and had them published in English, exposing him to American aeronautics experts.
Hohenemser and his family came to the United States in 1947. He weighed offers from Flettner, who also left Germany after the war, and St. Louis' James McDonnell, who also was involved in helicopter development. Hohenemser chose McDonnell, serving 18 years at McDonnell Douglas Corp. as chief aerodynamics engineer of its helicopter division before joining the University in 1966 as professor of aerospace engineering.
Hohenemser was Peters' mentor and master's thesis adviser in the 1970s. Peters recalled that Hohenemser was a hearty man who took massive amounts of vitamin C and drank only raw, unpasteurized milk, which he had to purchase in Illinois because it's not sold in Missouri.
He rode a bicycle everywhere into his 80s, out of concern for the pollution automobiles cause.
"He cross-country skied every winter until he reached 91," Peters said. "When he would visit my house, he'd often check on my furnace to make it more efficient for the winter. Efficiency and exactitude were very important to him."
During the decade following the 1973 oil embargo, Hohenemser wrote a column on energy policy for Environment magazine, in which he explored all kinds of alternative energy. Since 1980, Hohenemser conducted research at Tyson Research Center on a wind turbine he designed based on his pioneering helicopter work. He collected data, trying to prove that a properly designed helicopter-type rotor, with its helicopter-type mechanical controls, is more suitable for wind turbines than commonly used propeller-type rotors controlled by electronics --highly vulnerable to lightning storm.
Even in areas of high average wind speeds, wind turbines are not yet a clear economic alternative. For example, the electronically controlled turbines on the California mountain passes are beset by frequent failures that keep them offline. Thus, improvements in wind turbine designs are important, and use of mechanical controls remains promising.
In his later years, he delved into quantum mechanics, a topic of interest since his early years. He corresponded with Max Born and Albert Einstein.
At 82, in a letter to his granddaughter Lisa Hohenemser, he wrote:
"With the spring winds and higher temperatures arriving, I will get busy on the windmill. I also have a lot of fun with my study of the foundations of quantum physics. I don't want to go to heaven before I have not understood completely what makes the universe tick."
He received many prestigious honors, including the Grover E. Bell Award from the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and the Alexander Klemin Award from the American Helicopter Society. He received the Spirit of St. Louis Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1985.
Hohenemser is survived by his daughter, Veronica Sutherland, a mathematics teacher in Salt Lake City, and his son, Christoph Hohenemser, professor of physics and environmental science and technology at Clark University and 1963 physics doctoral graduate of Washington University.
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