TOUSSAINT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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22.3.1885 Autreppes/B - 12.6.1956 Saint-Georges-de-Didonne/F

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Albert Toussaint graduated from Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1907. From 1911 to 1920 he was a scientific collaborator first and then until 1953 the director of Institut Aéronautique in Saint-Cyr. In parallel he was a professor at Sorbonne, Paris and a Lecturer at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Travaux Aéronautique, Paris. He presided over Commission d'Aéronautique at the National Science and Inventions Office. Toussaint was elected in 1932 Officer of Légion d'Honneur and awarded Prix Boileau from Académie des Sciences in 1939.

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Toussaint developed from 1910 to 1914 the laboratory instrumentation for the Institut Aéronautique. After his return from World War I which he spent at Chalais-Meudon by testing prototype airplanes, he moved to Saint-Cyr. In 1928 he installed the first French aerodynamic balance allowing for the determination of the six force components. Six years later, the first French automatic registration of these forces was taken into service. By 1946 Saint-Cyr had the first industrial wind tunnel of small turbulence level. In parallel a transonic wind tunnel was taken into service to respond to the development of high-speed airplanes. This tunnel was developed by 1953 for variable Mach numbers in the supersonic flow range. Toussaint was a scientist who had significantly developed both aerodynamics and aeronautical technology. He particularly investigated the scaling laws and applied the theorems of Nikolai Zhukovsky (1847-1921) and Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953). He also was interested in the experimental production of a plane flow and its effect on a biplane. Other researches aimed to the analysis of the limiting conditions of wind tunnels and the theory of propellers for both airplane motors and ventilation.

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_{Anonymous (1956). Albert Toussaint. Aérotechniques Spatiales 1: 249-250. P}

_{Dantin, C. (1911). L'Institut Aérotechnique de l'Université de Paris à Saint-Cyr. Le Génie Civil}

_{59(10): 197-203.}

_{Ecole Polytechnique (1995). Toussaint, Albert. Thalès: Paris. CD-Rom. P}

_{Pérès, J. (1957). Albert Toussaint. Annales de l'Université de Paris 27(1): 52-54. Poggendorff, J.C. (1953). Toussaint, Albert-Charles-Louis. Biographisch-Literarisches Hand- wörterbuch 6: 2680; 7b: 5519-5520. Akad. Verlagsgesellschaft: Leipzig, bibliography.}

_{Toussaint, A. (1921). Essais des modèles et aéronefs en vrai grandeur. 1 Congrès International de la Navigation Aérienne 1: 14-17.}

_{Toussaint, A. (1935). Experimental methods - Wind tunnels. Aerodynamic theory 3: 252-319,}

_{W.F. Durand, ed. Dover: New York.}