In the 1930s, it was discovered that the rectangular joint between an airplane’s wing and fuselage could cause the separation of air vortices, accompanied by strong vibrations of the entire aircraft structure.
A group of researchers, which included T. Kármán, proposed preventing vortex separation by using a fairing at the junction of the wing and fuselage. In 1932, Kármán gave a lecture in Paris about this work, and the new method produced equally excellent results in France as in the USA. After that, French aircraft designers began calling such fairings “kármáns.” The term caught on, and when several years later T. Kármán happened to visit France, he once heard an astonished exclamation when his name was mentioned:
— Kármán? The man with the fairings?