Copyright © A. Filippone (1996-2001). All Rights Reserved.
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Reference Desk
  • Basic Books

I call basic books with limited or no mathermatics, concerned with general problems at a beginner’s level.

  1. Dalton S. The Miracle of Flight, Firefly Book, 1999 (ISBN-1-55209-378-9)
    Review: Illustrated with photos from the natural world, which I particularly like.

  2. Smith HC “Skip”. The Illustrated Guide to Aerodynamics, 1992.
    Review: Very basic

  3. Stribling, CB. Basic Aerodynamics. Butterworth, London, 1984.
    Review: The auther has strived to write a book with computer program examples. Scrap the BASIC programming (that is now outdated), and you are left with essential calculation examples of boundary layers, airfoil theory in supersonic flow and duct flows.

  4. Many authors, The Lore of Flight, Tre Tryckare, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1970
    Review: Basic, historical, illustrated, with encyclopaedic index. Foreword by Igor Sikorsky.

  5. Simons M. Airflow, Nexus Special Interests, 1984 (ISBN 1-85486-169-7).
    Review: A good book to start from. There is no math, but a good deal of hand drawings and photo, all very descriptive. Indicated for those who want to learn some basics of sailing, wind turbines, boomerangs (chapt 6), kites (chapt 7), parachutes, gliders (chapt 9), autogyros, rocket and jet propulsion, supersonic flight (chapt 11).

  6. Tennekes H. The Simple Science of Flight, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993.
    Review: One of the most interesting readings. How can a writer be so illuminated ? — Dr. Tennekes seems fascinated by the Boeing 747. Good data base of birds flight and fancy drawings (possibly by the author himself.) Highly recommended

  7. Wegener P. What Makes Airplanes Fly ?, Springer-Verlag, 1996.
    Review: Broad, simple, with some chapters of history (aerodynamics and aeronautics) and few curious details.

Trivia

  1. T.P. Jorgensen, The Physics of Golf, Springer-Verlag, 1994
    Review: Strokes, swings and of course aerodynamics for the technical practitioner.

  2. English, D Slipping the Surly Bonds: Great Quotations of Flight, McGraw-Hill, 1998.
    Review: A collection of amazing things that have been told, in form of quotation, in aviation, space exploration, and anything having to do with flight.

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Copyright © A. Filippone (1996-2001). All Rights Reserved.