Author: George Hartley Bryan
Alternate names: G. H. Bryan
Born: 1 March 1864
Died: 13 October 1928
Bio: George Hartley (G. H.) Bryan FRS was an English applied mathematician who was an authority on thermodynamics and aeronautics. He was born in Cambridge, England, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he specialized in applying mathematics to thermodynamics analysis. Bryan obtained his BA in 1886; MA in 1890; and DSc in 1896. He was a professor at University College of North Wales, and is generally credited with developing the modern mathematical treatment of the motion of airplanes in flight as rigid bodies with six degrees of freedom. Bryan's seismologic studies of Coriolis effects in massive liquid spheres have received confirmation from data collected by seismologic stations set up to detect nuclear explosions in the aftermath of World War II, as well as from seismographic data from the Great Chilean earthquake of 1960.

In 1890, Bryan discovered the so-called "wave inertia effect" in axi-symmetric thin elastic shells. This effect is the theoretical basis for modern solid-state gyroscopy using hemispherical or "wine-glass" resonators, which were elaborated by Dr. David D. Lynch, et al., almost a century after Bryan's original discovery. These novel, precise sensors are now used for satellite guidance systems, among other applications. He was appointed as a lecturer at Bangor University in 1896, and within a few months, at 32 years old, he was appointed Chair of Pure and Applied Mathematics. In 1911, a year after the Wright brothers' successful flight, he published *Stability in Aviation*.

Aside from minor differences in notation, Bryan's 1911 equations are the same as those used today to evaluate modern aircraft. (Perhaps surprisingly, Bryan's equations—published just eight years after the first aircraft flew—are most accurate when applied to supersonic jets.) In evaluating aircraft mathematically, Bryan focused on issues of aerodynamic stability rather than on control. Bryan's aeronautic results were an extension of his earlier work in fluid dynamics. In 1888, Bryan developed mathematical models for fluid pressures within a pipe and for external buckling pressures. These models are still used today.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1895. He was a Gold medallist of the Institution of Naval Architects (1901), President of the Mathematical Association (1907), and a Gold medallist of the Aeronautical Society (1914).

Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Bryan)