$23.07  Model Aircraft Aerodynamics - Book |
$13.57  Theory of Wing Sections (Dover Books on Physics) - Book |
 [Larger view] | The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets
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Average user rating:  | |
| More comprehensible? Impossible. | |
| Since years I love the aviation, only for curiosity I bought this book, and in one morning I've enjoyed too much and learnt a lot about aerodynamics, fuel consumption, the migration of birds(really interesting), the forces in skating! etc. It is a book with of 120 pages really educative and comprenhensible, all questions I made in my mind reading the book were answered a few pages ahead. If you are interested in planes, want to know how simple they fly, even loose the fear, and learn all this in easy way and learn about more things you never thought in relation with planes, this is your book. Is any commision for me??hahaha.
Enjoy it. | |
| Fun and instructive | |
| This delightful little book is an introduction to some major aspects of flight. Not all of them. There isn't much on strength of materials, for example. This book concentrates on the fundamental issues of how much power it takes to fly and what size a flying machine ought to be to make optimal use of its power. What makes the book so much fun is the inclusion of flight characteristics of birds and insects.
Tennekes starts with a chart of weight versus cruising speed for the insects, birds, and planes. Next, he discusses wing sizes. Then fuel consumption, strategies for takeoffs and landings, and gliding. The author concludes with some praise for the design of the Boeing 747. All commercial passenger planes are best off flying as fast as possible without getting too near the speed of sound, so Mach 0.9 is best. These planes are best off flying high enough to take advantage of the cooler air and good weather: a height of 10 kilometers is ideal. To match the cruising speed with the optimal wing loading at that height, one gets an airplane which is roughly the size and shape of a Boeing 747. I highly recommend this book. | |
| I finally understood aircraft ! | |
| It's a pity that Tennekes moved to the USA, State College, Pennsylvania. If he had stayed in Holland and become a professor in Delft, graduating in aerospace engineering would have been much easier for me. This guy loves aircraft more than mathematics ! The best place to read this book is during a long trip on a 747 |
