The young Egyptian scientist Haitham Ezzat Taha, assistant professor at the University of California Irvine, developed a new scientific theory in aeronautics, through which he solved a dilemma that lasted more than 100 years, and this is the largest advance in the field of aerodynamics over the past century, That is, since the emergence of the classical theory of flight.
It is expected that this new theory, which was published in a research paper in the June 25 issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, will replace the theory of the German scientist Cotta, who developed his theory in the early 20th century.
And about the circumstances that contributed to achieving this great scientific achievement and the prospects for aviation sciences in the world and the Arab world, Haitham Taha told us in this dialogue to Al Jazeera Net via e-mail:
Palestinian scientist Ali Nayfeh (left) nominated researcher Haitham Ezzat Taha for admission to a doctoral study at Virginia Tech (Al Jazeera)
In the beginning, tell us about your scientific journey from Egypt to the United States?
She graduated from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Cairo University in 2005 with the first rank in the class and was appointed as a teaching assistant in the department, then obtained a master's degree in flight control in 2008 from the same department.
After I despaired of getting a scholarship to study a doctorate in the United States, I decided to register my doctorate at Cairo University, and I actually studied for a year and that gave me some scientific maturity when I traveled to the United States after I won, by God’s grace, a scholarship from Virginia Tech, and it helped me In that Palestinian scientist Ali Nayfeh, who won the Franklin Medal, it was he who nominated me for admission to the university.
After that, she transferred to the University of California Irvine in 2015, and in 2020 she was appointed as an assistant professor of aviation sciences.
It is said that aviation science lessons in Egyptian universities are stronger than others in Western universities. How is that?
If we confine ourselves to a bachelor’s degree, the answer is categorically yes and the reasons are complex and intertwined, but it can be summarized that studying engineering in our country takes 5 years, while it takes only 4 years in American universities.
Therefore, an AUC graduate does not get the same scientific content as a student in Egypt, and this is not necessarily bad because most of the work in the industry may not need the technical complexity that we study in the fifth year.
This is at the undergraduate level, but after that, the matter is completely different. Postgraduate studies in the United States are much stronger and cannot be compared to our country, because postgraduate studies mean scientific research, and practical research requires large funding that Egyptian universities cannot provide.
In your opinion, what role can governments as well as the private sector play in supporting the aviation sector and making it an economically viable sector?
The truth is that after the emergence of “drones” or drones, governments’ support for the aviation sector has become an economic duty and a matter of national security, and we at the Turkish “Bayraktar” company are a role model in this regard. Within 10 years of government attention, this company has become one of the largest Companies in the region bring millions of dollars into the state treasury.
Haitham Taha: The Turkish "Bayrakdar" company is an example and a role model in achieving a breakthrough in the aviation industry (social networking sites)
The manufacture of drones is not as difficult as civil or military aircraft, as the disappearance of the human factor contributed to dropping many restrictions on the design, as well as the lack of the need to adopt a quality certificate, as is the case in civil aircraft that take years.
Therefore, the drone industry is more feasible with technology that is not very complex, so many of our countries can initiate this matter, and this will create job opportunities and achieve a new source of income for the country in hard currency through selling to neighboring countries or political allies, and will help protect national security, and these are 3 benefits Great achievement in one project.
How do you evaluate Turkey's experience with Bayraktar?
Seljuk Bayraktar, the technical director of the company, returned from studying for a master's degree in the United States to Turkey in 2006. At that time, the Bayraktar Company was submerged, and the first plane he designed after his return was the "Bayraktar Mini", which is similar to amateur models or what bachelor students design in student competitions in this matter;
Very simple technology and weak capabilities.
But within a few years, the design developed to produce the "Bayraktar TB2", which made a difference in the war in Azerbaijan, and finally in Ukraine, and Turkey has sold many of them to some countries.
Dr. Haitham Ezzat Taha graduated from the Aviation Department at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University in 2005 (Al-Jazeera)
Returning to your last achievement, could you explain your new theory and the solution you provided?
The most important question in aeronautics is: How much lift is generated on a wing moving at a certain speed?
Calculating lift force is the beating heart of any theory of flight. Without it, we would not be able to know whether this wing would be able to carry the weight of the aircraft or not.
Quite simply, the current theory for calculating lift, developed by German scientist Martin Cotta (along with the Russian scientist Nikolai Zhukovsky) can only predict lift on one type of wing shape: hind wings.
If there is a slight change in the shape, the theory collapses completely, and we cannot theoretically calculate the lifting force unless we use a supercomputer for a large period of time, and this makes it impractical in the process of the initial design of the aircraft, as there are millions of variables and millions of alternative designs that must be quickly compared.
Not only that, even this usual shape of the wing with a sharp background if moved in reverse (the point became the point in front) Cotta's theory also failed, as well as unstable flight such as flying with flapping like birds and insects, Cotta's theory is not applicable in this case from the ground up.
Haitham Taha: Although the Kota theory has dominated the world of aviation for more than a century, it is deficient (Al-Jazeera)
So, despite the dominance of Cotta's theory on the world of aviation for more than a century, as it is taught in all departments of mechanical and aviation engineering in the whole world, and is found in all aerodynamics books, it is very deficient.
The problem is essentially mathematical. Euler's equations governing the flow of an ideal fluid do not have a single solution, and mathematicians are certain of this.
The problem is not in solving the equation. The solution is known, but it is not unique. Rather, there are an infinite number of solutions, and each solution results in a different value for the lift force;
The problem is that we don't know which of these solutions nature chooses.
The research that we presented was based on a deep and simple principle of the world Hertz, which is known as the “Hertz principle of least curvature”, and after knowing this principle, it became possible to solve the problem.
Simply: Nature chooses from Euler's solutions the one with the least curvature, when applying this theory to the usual wings shapes with a pointed back point, we get a kota solution, that is, the kota theory has become a special case of the general theory based on a basic principle of mechanics, which is the principle of least curvature .
Why is your new research a scientific and technological breakthrough?
It is a scientific victory for a number of factors: First, because it solves a dilemma that has remained unresolved for more than a century despite the attempts of the most skilled mathematicians, physicists, fluid mechanics scientists and aeronautical engineers.
Secondly - as we said - the Cotta theory is the dominant theory in all departments of mechanics and aviation in the world, and in all aerodynamics books, and it is expected that our new general theory will replace Cotta's theory in aviation departments worldwide.
Here at the University of California, Irvine, my colleagues are going to teach the new theory next year, and my colleagues at Virginia Tech and in some other universities have decided to teach the theory in their courses.
In fact, this is what I really hope for;
That the professors in our country in the departments of mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering, physics and applied mathematics adopt the new theory and devote some time to it when teaching the Kota theory, so that our students know that the dominant Kota theory in the world of aviation, which they find in all aerodynamics books, is just a special case of a general theory that he developed A very ordinary person like them, has been sitting in the same place for 15 years.
Haitham Taha (left) expects the new theory to replace Kota's theory in aviation departments worldwide (Al Jazeera)
The last and closest thing to my heart is the following: At a time in human history Arab and Muslim scholars were at the fore in philosophy, from Al-Farabi to Avicenna to Al-Ghazali and Averroes.
Then the decay occurred and the sun of civilization shone on the West in the 17th century with the beginning of the Renaissance. In fact, the Renaissance was based on philosophy from Francis Bacon to Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, D’Alembert, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, and the status of philosophy from modern science as the heart in the body;
The doctorate degree is called the Doctor of Philosophy, and Einstein's theory of relativity is essentially a philosophical theory.
Our new theory is a philosophical victory;
We were able to solve the mathematical problem with a purely philosophical principle so that we did not use modern equipment or new technology, only with classic tools that were available to pioneers in the field of aeronautics and aerodynamics such as Cotta, Zhukovsky, Prandtl and von Karmann.
Therefore, this is one of the few times in which an Eastern scholar has been able to achieve a scientific-philosophical victory over the great Western scholars.
Haitham Taha: The aviation industry is a very traditional industry and the major airlines are not taking risks and trying new ideas (European)
How will this theory contribute to the development of the world of aviation in practice?
The airline industry is very traditional and quite stable, and the major airlines are not taking risks and trying new ideas.
The recent Boeing scandal with the downing of two 737 Max planes is a good example of this, as the company's management's resistance to designing a new plane forced engineers to make some unsafe modifications that led to the two fatalities.
Accordingly, we do not expect the use of the new theory in the world of aviation in the near future, but it removed the restrictions in front of creativity in designing the shape of the wing, as it is not limited to one type of wing shape as the current theory of Cotta.
Thus, it can help designers of the future to create new, more efficient forms.
There is a new scientific discipline that has recently emerged under the name "Biomimicry" that relies on simulating nature in finding solutions to the problems that humans suffer from. Are there applications in the world of aviation inspired by this specialty?
The truth is that one of the manifestations of the great design of birds and insects is the greatness of the design of birds and insects. The process of flying man-made planes is much simpler than the flight of birds and insects to the extent that biologists and aeronautics are unable to do so.
Imagine that simply explaining the process of insect flight took a century, as this dilemma was solved by two papers in "Science" and "Nature" in 1999 and 2001 by scientists from "Oxford" and "Berkeley".
Haitham Taha: Until now, many of the secrets of flight in birds and insects have not yet been discovered (Pixaby)
Then another dilemma arose, namely how to stabilize it in the air, until, thanks to God, we were able to solve a large part of this dilemma in a research published in “Science Robotics” two years ago, which made an echo in the scientific community interested in studying this point.
So far, many of the secrets of flight in birds and insects have not yet been discovered, and this is of interest to many universities around the world.
I think there is still a lot for scientists and engineers to create products based on the technology of flapping flight to imitate nature, and these applications can be generalized to include children's toys or even for espionage purposes.