The American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA) Tennessee Section hosted a talk on November 20^th by Winfried “Wimp” Goethert.  Wimp explained how he and his family came to Tennessee post WWII.  His father, Bernard Goethert was one of the founding fathers of the University of Tennessee Space Institute, (UTSI) and was it’s very first director.  Goethert was known for the Goethert Similarity Rule for high-speed flows and was a leader in the design and initial operations of Tunnels 16T and 16S at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex over 50 years ago. 

Wimp was born in Germany and came to the United States after the war under, “Operation Paperclip” which was a secret US government operation that relocated an estimated 1,600 German scientists and their families to the US for development of a rocket program, to design wind tunnels, and develop biological and chemical weapons.  Wimp told how his family came to the US through this program as illegal aliens until their citizenship was granted.  During this time he learned the English Language and after three years moved to Manchester, TN. 

Wimp received an undergraduate Engineering Physics degree from UT Knoxville and a Masters in Physics from the UT Space Institute.  He retired in 2006 after a 42 year long career at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, (AEDC) as a research engineer developing electro-optical instrumentation for flow measurements in wind tunnels.