Dr. Goetz Bramesfeld
Areas of Academic Interest
Applied Aerodynamics
Spotlight
After soaring above the fluffy clouds with his high school glider club in Germany, Goetz Bramesfeld knew he wanted to study aerospace. "I've always been fascinated with sailplanes," he says. "Soaring is fairly popular in Germany, but most people haven't experienced it here."
In university, he joined a student club that had been designing cell planes since 1922. "We spent more time in the glider shop than in school!" he jokes.
Sailplanes can fly thousands of kilometers—even across the country—without a motor. Similar to switching gears on a bicycle, gliders use altitude changes to find air that rises faster than the aircraft sinks. "There are moments when you're flying where the theory suddenly works," he says.
After years of working in R&D, Bramesfeld enjoys having the flexibility to take on extra projects with his students at Toronto Metropolitan University. "As a researcher, I always wanted to go a little farther, but then the contract would end," he says. Here, he can keep going. "Toronto Metropolitan University doesn't get dragged down by tradition," he says. "Change is really possible here."
"Aircraft design is a team effort."
- Bissonnete, W. and Bramesfeld, G., “Effects of Wake Shapes on High-Lift System Aerodynamic Predictions,” Aerospace, Vol. 4, No. 2, April 2017, doi: 10.3390/aerospace4020024.
- Krebs, T. and Bramesfeld, G., “Using an Optimization Process for Sailplane Winglet Design,” Aeronautical Journal, Vol. 120, No. 1733, pp. 1726-1745, November 2016, doi: 10.1017/aer.2016.83.
- LeBeau, R. P., Bramesfeld, G., Warning, S. Palotai, C., *Dreas, J., *Krofta, J., “Examining Conditions for the Potential Exploration of the Atmosphere of Uranus with Autonomous Gliders,” Journal of Technical Soaring, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 18-29, July 2015.
- Bramesfeld, G. and Malik, A., “Micro Aerial Vehicles: Are Two Wings Better than One?” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 1575-1585, Sept.-Oct. 2015, doi: http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/1.C033012.
- Combes, T., Malik, A., Bramesfeld, G., McQuilling, M., “Efficient Fluid-Structure Interaction Method for Conceptual Design of Flexible, Fixed-Wing Micro Air Vehicle Wings,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 1442-1454, June 2015.
- Associated Editor Technical Soaring Journal
- Board Member Organisation Scientifique et Technique du Vol à Vole (OSTIV), International Scientific and Technical Soaring Organization