Boltzmann and the Art of Flying

摘要

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.