Dietrich Küchemann

Dietrich Küchemann CBE FRSFRAeS (11 September 1911 in Göttingen, Germany – 23 February 1976 in Farnham, England) was a German aerodynamicist who made several important contributions to the advancement of high-speed flight. He spent most of his career in the U.K., where he is best known for his work on Concorde.

Küchemann was born in Göttingen where he studied at its University of Göttingen, home of the largest German institute of aerodynamics. He was originally going to move on to pure physics research under Max Born, a friend of his father's, but lost this chance when Born and several other Jewish members of the University staff were expelled from the country by the Nazi regime. Instead Küchemann went on to join Ludwig Prandtl in aerodynamics research. He published his doctoral thesis in 1936.

With the war looming, Küchemann volunteered for service in 1938, and as expected was given a non-combatant role in Signals. He held the rank of Unteroffizier from 1942–45, but he saw no active service. During this period he continued research, notably into the problems of high speed flight, wave drag, swept wing theory and initial steps on the road to the area rule, and he designed a fuselage shape later dubbed the "Küchemann Coke Bottle".

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