Jef Raskin: A Life of Design

[Ollie]

Computing pioneer Jef Raskin died on Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 61. Raskin is best known for starting the Macintosh project at Apple in the late seventies, though his later career as an expert in computer interfaces was overshadowed by controversy over who 'fathered' the Macintosh.

Coanda Effect: Understanding Why Wings Work
http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/coanda_effect.html

How to Balance a Model Airplane
http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/balance_point.html

A GOOD AIRFOIL FOR SMALL RC MODELS
http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/airfoil.html

Jef Raskin & friends' model airplane designs:
http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/slides/airplanes/index.html

[Tim Green]

Yes - Jeff will be missed. Theory coupled with experimentation.

He wasn't afraid. To test, and then to challenge, if his tests warranted it.

And his theories were clearly documented as well as supported by well designed and easily reproducible tests.

[Ben Lanterman]

He said in one of his many writings...

"Think of the wing moving to the left, with the air standing still. The air moves toward the wing much as if it was attached to the wing with invisible rubber bands. It is often helpful to think of lift as the action of the rubber bands that are pulling the wing up. "

He does the experiments then misinterprets the results and gives the wrong answer. He says Coanda effect works like the above.

Air cannon suck on anything. Air can only push. His analogy of air rubber bands pulling the wing up is false on its basic premise and so his conclusion is wrong. Coanda is not the big lift producer he would wish it was. If he had taken the time to be grounded in his science he wouldn't have made the conclusion he did.

[Tim Green]

Air sucking the wing up? That's not what Jeff's article was about.

Here's another quote from Jeff's well thought out article ...

"It is classic action and reaction. You move a mass of air down and the wing moves up. This is a useful visualization of the lift generated by the top of the wing."

And the URL where these two quotes came from

http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/coanda_effect.html

for those of you that don't want to listen to Ben's interpretation (or my own), and would rather hear it directly from Jeff.

I myself, will not post again, in this memorial thread to Jeff.