The study of aerodynamics can be traced back to the early speculation about the force exerted by birds or projectiles in flight and the mode of action of the force. /kloc-In the late 7th century, the Dutch physicist Huygens first estimated the resistance of an object moving in the air. 1726, Newton applied the principle of mechanics and deductive method, and obtained that the force on an object moving in the air is directly proportional to the square of its velocity, the characteristic area of the object and the density of the air. This work can be regarded as the beginning of the classical theory of aerodynamics. 1755, the mathematician Euler got the differential equation describing the motion of inviscid fluid, that is, Euler's differential equation of motion. These differential dynamic equations can be integrated under certain conditions and get valuable results, such as Bernoulli equation. The French mechanic J. Le T.D 'D'Alembert got the D 'Alembert paradox of motion without resistance without considering the influence of viscosity, which attracted the attention of many scholars. /kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, French Naville and British Stokes put forward a motion equation describing the conservation of momentum of viscous incompressible fluid, which was later called Naville-Stokes equation.

By the end of 19, the foundation of classical fluid mechanics has been formed. Since the 20th century, with the rapid development of aviation, aerodynamics has developed from fluid mechanics and formed a new branch of mechanics. In this process, von Carmen played an important role in the development of aerodynamics.

The primary problem to be solved in aviation is how to obtain the lift required by the aircraft, reduce the drag of the aircraft and improve its flight speed. It is necessary to study the generation and law of force when an aircraft moves relative to the air theoretically and practically. 1894, Lanchester, England first put forward the circulation theory of infinite wingspan wings or airfoils, and the vortex theory of finite wingspan wings. But Lanchester's idea didn't get widespread attention at that time.

During the period of1901~1910, Kuta and Zhukovsky independently put forward the circulation theory and lift theory of airfoil, and gave the mathematical form of lift theory, and established the two-dimensional wing theory. 1904, Plandtl of Germany published the famous low-speed flow boundary layer theory (also known as boundary layer theory). The theory points out that the governing equation can have different simplified forms in different flow regions.

The boundary layer theory has greatly promoted the development of aerodynamics. Pelant also systematized the three-dimensional wing theory with finite span and gave its mathematical results, thus establishing the lift line theory of the wing with finite span. However, it cannot be applied to stall, sweep angle and small aspect ratio. 1946, Jones of the United States put forward the theory of wing with low aspect ratio. Using this theory and boundary layer theory, the pressure distribution and surface friction resistance on the wing can be calculated accurately enough.

The rapid development of modern aviation and jet technology makes the flight speed increase rapidly. In the case of high-speed motion, in order to correctly understand and solve the problems in high-speed aerodynamics, it is necessary to combine fluid mechanics with thermodynamics. During the period of 1887 ~ 1896, the Austrian scientist Mach pointed out that the propagation characteristics of the disturbance caused by projectiles are fundamentally different in different flows less than or greater than the speed of sound. In high-speed flow, the ratio of velocity to local sound velocity is an important dimensionless parameter. 1929, the German aerodynamist Akelet first associated this dimensionless parameter with Mach's name. Ten years later, Mach, a characteristic parameter, was widely used in gas dynamics.

The propagation of small disturbances in supersonic flow will be superimposed to form a finite jumping shock wave. Shock waves also exist in many practical supersonic flows. Under adiabatic conditions, when the gas flows through the shock wave flow field, the parameters change suddenly, the entropy increases, and the total energy remains unchanged.

Rankin, a British scientist, independently established the relationship between air flow and shock wave at 1870 and 1887 respectively, which provided correct boundary conditions for the mathematical treatment of supersonic flow field. For the small disturbance problem of thin wings, Arkwright put forward the two-dimensional linear wing theory in 1925, and then the three-dimensional linear wing theory appeared accordingly. These linear theories of supersonic flow have successfully solved the influence of small disturbances in flow.

When the flight speed or airflow speed approaches the sound speed, the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft changes sharply, the drag increases sharply, and the lift drops sharply. The maneuverability and stability of aircraft have deteriorated extremely, which is the famous sound barrier in aviation history. The appearance of large thrust engine broke through the sound barrier, but it did not solve the complex transonic flow problem well. It was not until the 1960s that the research on transonic flow was paid more attention and developed greatly due to the development of transonic cruise flight, maneuvering flight and efficient jet engine.

The development of long-range missiles and artificial satellites has promoted the development of hypersonic aerodynamics. In 1950s and 1960s, the hypersonic inviscid flow theory and aerodynamic engineering calculation method were established. In the early 1960s, the numerical calculation of hypersonic flow also developed rapidly. By studying these phenomena and laws, high-temperature gas dynamics, high-speed boundary layer theory and non-balanced flow theory are developed.

It is necessary to study the multiphase flow of high temperature gas because of the ablation of aircraft surface materials and the mass ejection at high temperature. The development of aerodynamics has the characteristics of combining with many disciplines. Another important aspect of aerodynamic development is experimental research, including the development of various experimental equipment such as wind tunnel and the development of experimental theory, method and testing technology. The world's first wind tunnel was built in 187 1 Wimbledon, England. Up to now, there are dozens of wind tunnels suitable for various simulation conditions, purposes, uses and various measurement methods, and the contents of wind tunnel experiments are extremely extensive.

In the late 1940s, the wind tunnel control system has developed from simple manual control equipment to some electronic control equipment. Since the 1960s, great progress has been made in wind tunnel measurement and control technology, instruments, measurement items, types, accuracy requirements, computer automatic control and recording, and result processing. The experiment of simulating Reynolds number has also attracted people's attention.

Since 1970s, the rapid development of laser technology, electronic technology and computer has greatly improved the experimental level and calculation level of aerodynamics, and promoted the study of highly nonlinear problems and complex structures (such as turbulence).

In addition to the above-mentioned development of aerospace industry, the development of aerodynamics has been promoted. Since 1960s, due to the development of transportation, construction, meteorology, environmental protection, energy utilization and other aspects, sub-disciplines such as industrial aerodynamics have emerged.