Introduction to Flight

"This book is an introduction to aerospace engineering from both the technological and historical points of view. It is written to appeal to several groups of people : (1) students of aerospace engineering in their freshman or sophomore years in college who are looking for a comprehensive introduction to their profession ; (2) advanced high school seniors who want to learn what aerospace engineering is all about ; (3) college undergraduate and graduate students who want to obtain a wider perspective on the glories, the intellectual demands, and the technical maturity of aerospace engineering ; and (4) working engineers who simply want to obtain a firmer grasp on the fundamental concepts and historical traditions that underlie their profession. As an introduction to aerospace engineering, this book is unique in at least three ways. First, the vast majority of aerospace engineering professionals and students have little knowledge or appreciation of the historical traditions and background associated with the technology that they use almost every day. To fill this vacuum, the present book marbles some history of aerospace engineering into the parallel technical discussions. For example, such questions as who Bernoulli was, where the Pitot tube originated, how wind tunnels evolved, who the first true aeronautical engineers were, and how wings and airfoils developed are answered. The present author feels strongly that such material should be an integral part of the background of all aerospace engineers. Second, this book incorporates both the SI and the English engineering system of units. Modern students of aerospace engineering must be bilingual - on the one hand, they must fully understand and feel comfortable with the SI units - because most modern and all future literature will deal with the SI system ; on the other hand, they must be able to read and feel comfortable with the vast bulk of existing literature, which is predominantly in English engineering units. In this book, the SI system is emphasized, but an honest effort is made to give the reader a feeling for and understanding of both systems. To this end, some example problems are worked out in the SI system and others in the English system."--taken from Preface, page xii.