Werner Dahm | |
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Werner Dahm at NASA in 1968
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Born |
Lindenthal (Cologne), Germany |
February 16, 1917
Died | January 17, 2008 Huntsville, Alabama, United States (interred Maple Hill Cemetery) |
(aged 90)
Fields | aerodynamics, aerothermochemistry |
Institutions |
1939–1941 Heer signal corps
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Alma mater | 1947 Technical University of Aachen |
Notable awards | 2003 NASA Exceptional Service Medal |
Notes | |
Patents: a Wind Measurement System, a Focused Laser Doppler Velocimeter and a Clean Air Turbulence Detector.
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1939–1941 Heer signal corps
1941–1945: Peenemünde
1947–1956: Ordnance Corps
1956–1960: ABMA
1960–2006: MSFC
Patents: a Wind Measurement System, a Focused Laser Doppler Velocimeter and a Clean Air Turbulence Detector.
Parents: Anton Dahm and Maria Morkramer
Spouse: Kaethe Elizabeth Maxelon (1955), Nell Sheppard Carr (1981)
Children: Stephan, Werner J A, Martin, & Thomas
Werner Karl Dahm (February 16, 1917 in Lindenthal, Germany – January 17, 2008 in Huntsville, Alabama) was an early spaceflight scientist of the Peenemünde Future Projects Office who emigrated to the US under Operation Paperclip and was the Marshall Space Flight Center Chief Aerodynamicist.
Werner Karl Dahm was born on Feb. 16, 1917 in Lindenthal near Köln, Germany, the son of Anton Dahm and Maria Morkramer. The family moved to Bonn later that year. His father was the first engineer in a long line of merchants. After graduating from the Beethoven School in Bonn in 1936, he studied aerodynamics and aircraft design at the Technical University in Aachen, and later in Munich when the Nazis had closed other technical universities. In Munich he was one of just four students, out of several hundred, who refused to join the Nazi student club. He said he first simply pretended not to find it, and then since it was formally listed as a dueling club he avoided it by claiming religious objections. For this he was denied access to certain advanced aircraft courses, so he focused on courses relevant to rocketry. Before completing his degree he was drafted at the end of 1939, and sent with a signal corps unit to France and then to Czechoslovakia. In between, he was granted a one-semester break to complete the major part of his aerodynamics degree.