In 1965, just one student of the whole first year of Vliegtuigbouwkunde (predecessor Luchtvaarttechnologie) was a member of the fraternity in Haarlem. This had to do with the fact that the department Vliegtuigbouwkunde was placed in a temporary building. The lack of any structured form of social life outside of school hours was experienced as a loss, which led to the idea to set up, next to the fraternity, a separate study association for Vliegtuigbouwkunde.
On the 19th of September 1966 four students took the initiative to set up a study association especially for the study Vliegtuigbouwkunde. At a meeting held for the entire department, the plan was launched, and it was supported wholeheartedly by all who were present. Decided was that the four students would develop the idea further. These four were:
- D.U. van der Maal
- D.J. Rozema
- C.W. Nassenstein
- H.C. de Jong
The Aeronautical study association (Vliegtuigbouwkundige Studievereniging, V.S.V. in Dutch) was a fact! One of the first things that came up was the name the association should have. The four had heard from the teachers that Mr Sipke Wynia, who deceased before the set-up, was always endeavoured for the department.
O.V. de Lugt (now deceased former teacher and colleague of Mr Wynia) about Sipke Wynia:
Sipke Wynia taught everything there was to know about aerodynamics. We had a plegaf alles wat met de aerodynamica te maken had. We enjoyed working together from 1956 to 1965, in 1965 Mr Wynia unfortunately died. Sipke Wynia came from the National Research Centre for Aviation (later NLR), after that he became head of the science department of the Dutch Air Force. He has done a lot of research into the behaviour occurring at stalls.
If he would still have lived at this time, he would have been very enthusiastic to join the Space Shuttle or to circle the moon. He was a bit wild I must say. He was a biker and was hit by a bus once.
The study association Sipke Wynia is set up by student v.d. Maal (of the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service), just after Wynia deceased. This was the reason, why to association got its name. Apart from that, Sipke did a lot for the department of Vliegtuigbouw. I believe he was not always as bright as a teacher, but the students liked him very much because of his enthusiasm about planes and the way he presented this was particularly important. Wynia was a very enthusiastic man, one you will not meet very often, someone who is always 100% committed. He might have been a bit confused from time to time, but he always had a lot of ideas and energy. Wynia said: “We should get more teachers in the department and we should get rid of the old junk from mechanical engineering, it is nonsense they still teach about steam engines.”
Then Sipke Wynia started with a whole report and he took the initiative to set up a meeting with people from the industry. Included were representatives of Fokker, KLM, The Royal Air Force and NLS. Also, at that time the curriculum was revised to get a solid foundation which was independent from other departments.
Mr Wynia, Mr de Lugt and Mr Huiskamp together formed the foundation of the department of Vliegtuigbouwkunde in Haarlem at that time.
Thanks to Mr Overtoom.