Anthony B. Linn

Biography

Professor Linn has interests in light aircraft propulsion, gas turbines for light aircraft and aircraft certification. He has conducted research in the areas of unsteady aerodynamics, turbulence formation and aircraft certification. His teaching interests include turbomachinery, aircraft dynamics and control and fluids. Professor Linn held a research engineer appointment at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he conducted research for FAA production certification of the NASA Personal Air Vehicle. The vehicle was to be manufactured using commercial-off- the-shelf (COTS) automotive components in order to meet cost constraints. He examined industry consensus standards that had been adopted by government regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the recently adopted Light-Sport-Aircraft ASTM consensus standard. The precedent of government agency acceptance of industry consensus standards and the LSA standard suggested that the FAA could accept industry consensus standards for quality assurance used by the automotive industry. He evaluated the quality systems currently used by automotive manufacturers and compared these systems to the FAA requirements for production approval. Professor Linn has conducted research in dynamic stall, a phenomenon often encountered in rotorcraft and rotating machinery. He designed and built a special wind tunnel test chamber, adapting a tunnel to simulate dynamic stall conditions. His work showed that increases in the average lift were possible, given proper dynamic stall conditions, suggesting simplified means of achieving high lift without high lift devices. Professor Linn has conducted research addressing the origins of turbulence, boundary layer instability and turbulent bursts. He modeled the formation of turbulent bursts and demonstrated conditions required for burst stability and growth through Direct Numerical Simulation. His work suggested schemes for active control of turbulence and verified some long-standing assumptions made by early investigators of turbulence. Professor Linn has served as a consultant to a variety of industries including, glass and ceramics, packaging, consumer product manufacturing, water treatment and manufacture of light aircraft. His contributions included design of control system architecture, design of automated manufacturing systems and processes, analysis of dynamics and structure of light rotorcraft and plant startup of large automated facilities. Professor Linn holds a commercial pilot’s license and is an FAA certified flight instructor, an active member of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association. He currently conducts instrument flight training part time. Professor Linn is the Chair of the New England Section of the AIAA and former chair of the Worcester Chapter of ASME.

Research Interest

aerodynamics, turbulence formation and aircraft