OSTIV Prize awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Armin Quast

The OSTIV PRIZEis awarded to:

Dipl.-Ing. Armin Quast

for lifelong contributions to the science and technology
of sailplanes and soaring flight

Citation

His contributions to the sport began during his Akaflieg Braunschweig days in the early 1960’s. Armin Quast contributed to the construction of the SB-6, which was one of the first sailplanes using composite materials for the wing and fuselage. He succeeded in developing a method for achieving high-precision airfoil shapes on glass-fiber wings. Armin Quast made numerous contributions to the development of sailplane aerodynamics, such as his work in developing a slotless Fowler flap to greatly improve the thermal circling performance of sailplanes.

Among his many accomplishments, one must also recognize the collaborations with fellow DLR researcher, Karl-Heinz Horstmann. These led to the development of many well-known HQ airfoils, which were tested in wind tunnels and using the flight-test mount on the DLR-sailplane, Janus, as developed by the two researchers. Armin Quast and Karl-Heinz Horstmann  also developed the blow-hole turbulators for drag reduction by mitigating the effects of laminar separation bubbles, as well as the thermal mix model that has been in use since the mid 1970’s, not only in sailplane design, but also for establishing the sailplane handicaps used in Club- and Sports-Class competitions. The collaboration between these two researchers also resulted in the significant development of using infrared techniques for the detection of transition. Armin Quast was awarded an OSTIV Diploma in 1987 for this important contribution, which has since been in use worldwide in transition studies on subsonic and transonic airfoils, in wind tunnels and during flight tests.

Finally, one must recognize not only Armin Quast’s design contributions to Akaflieg Braunschweig projects from the SB-6 to the SB-14, but also his role in the mentorship of the many students he advised during these times.