The research work of the collaborative research center SFB401 Flow Modulation and Fluid-Structure Interaction at Airplane Wings at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, which is reported in this book, was pos sible due to the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The proposal has been approved after evaluation by the referees of DFG selected from other universities and industry, which is gratefully acknowledged. The work is still in progress and now approved to continue until the end of year 2005. More than 50 scientists from universities of the United States, Russia, France, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and research orga nizations NASA, ONERA, NLR, DLR could be invited and have visited the research center, gave seminars on their research on related topics and some of them stayed longer for joined work. Besides its scientific value, also the importance of the pro gram for scientific educa tion becomes evident by looking at the numbers of completed theses, which are up to now about 15 doctoral theses, 40 diploma theses and 70 study theses. The authors of this book acknowledge the valuable support coming from all these persons and institutions. They are especially grateful to the referees having reviewed this work, A. Cohen (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie), J. Cooper (Manchester School of Engineering), W. Devenport (Virginia Tech.), M. Drela (MIT), F. Gern (Avionics Specialties Inc.), A. Griewank (TU Dresden), H. Hönlinger (DLR), P.
