A History of Aerodynamics: And Its Impact on Flying Machines

Rating:
Summary: Friendly book
Review: An excellent book bringing to life the trials and tribulations behind the history of flight. This book is an easy read, because it sounds like the author is talking directly to you.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Synthesis
Review: In this important overview, senior aerospace engineer John D. Anderson Jr., explores one of the most critical areas of flight, the evolution of aerodynamics. And the result is a significant work that goes far toward capturing the essence of this field. It will find a place in both aeronautical engineering and history of aeronautics classes, but the greatest importance of "A History of Aerodynamics" will probably be its use as an essential reference by scholars without the technical depth of Anderson working in the history of flight.

Anderson divides his subject into four key areas and attacks them chronologically. The first period, requiring nearly 100 pages in this publication, begins with antiquity and ends with the work of the Wright brothers at the beginning of the twentieth century. The second era he characterizes as one dominated by the strut-and-wire biplane of the 1900s through the 1920s. A third definable era came with the mature propeller-driven airplane that emerged in the 1930s and predominated until the 1950s. Then, a fourth era arose in which the jet aircraft has dominated. Anderson would be quick to point out that the last two eras have existed side-by-side since the coming of the jet, but that each of them present different aerodynamics challenges requiring different solutions and, hence, they deserve separate treatment.

Three major themes run through "A History of Aerodynamics" from Aristotle to the present. First, the author emphasizes the development of the discipline of aerodynamics-the change over time in the understanding of the physical nature of aerodynamic flows over solid bodies and the discovery and systemization of basic governing equations-much of which emerged independently from a variety of sources and without immediate practical application. For instance, Anderson concludes that with Newtonian physics as a foundation, numerous scientists and mathematicians ranging from Leonhard Euler to Pierre-Simon Laplace working largely individually constructed a framework for aerodynamics that included fundamental understanding of Euler's equations for an inviscid flow and the Navier-Stokes equations for a viscous flow. That effort, however, took place independently of a desire to build flying machines, and indeed many of those working on them scoffed at the idea of human powered flight.

Second, it took a group of practical inventors to apply these theoretical aerodynamics principles and build the first practical flying machines in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These individuals, few of whom held academic posts, began the practice of applied aerodynamics. The classic example is Wilbur and Orville Wright who had no advanced degrees and no outside funders, either public or private. The research of these people went directly into the design of airplanes. As Anderson concludes, "It is remarkable that the flying machine was developed and advanced well into the beginning of the twentieth century without direct recourse to the state of the art of theoretical aerodynamics that existed in academic circles" (pp. 448-49).

Finally, Anderson traces the linkage between the aerodynamic theory being developed in the academy and its application to the design of aircraft. Whereas the linkage had been tenuous at best until the second decade of the twentieth century, it has grown increasingly interrelated and complex since. Making airplanes more efficient, safe, and effective has become the raison d'être for aerodynamics research at least since the 1930s. The basic research of Otto Prandtl in Germany and Theodore von Kármán-himself a Prandtl student-at Caltech exemplify this transformation, as it found its way almost immediately into practical designs.

There is much to praise in this volume. It provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the subject. It also offers the best discussions available about some of the key breakthroughs in the twentieth century made by leading aerodynamicists such as Richard Whitcomb, John Stack, and Fred Weick. But for all its virtues, the overview offered here is a history written for engineers. Replete with formulae and technical detail, certainly to be expected in such a history, the author concerns himself with the linear process of aerodynamic understanding to the very great exclusion of any social or cultural factors that might have influenced the engineers.

For instance, the author concludes that the era of the modern propeller-driven aircraft was dominated by the requirement to reduce drag, and therefore enhance performance, so a "streamlining craze" emerged among aerodynamicists that fundamentally altered the direction of the airplane development. Despite many intriguing areas that might have been explored-for example, the story of the adoption of retractable landing gear explored by Walter Vincenti in a 1994 Technology & Culture article-here the progression of streamlining follows a linear pattern, with the text too often emphasizing what comes across as farsighted, preordained solutions to aerodynamics problems that led inexorably to the clean, efficient designs of the 1940s. There is little of the obscurity of choices, blind allies of research, or trial and error that might have enriched this story.

Even so, this is a massively impressive work that will be of real use to a large community. It will find use for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Unique history of aerodynamics
Review: Much has been written about the excitement of flight through the eyes of the pilot. There are many other books analyzing the impact of the airplane on military strategy. Even the industrialists have had more than a few books written about their lives and accomplishments. Yet without the fundamental studies of the applied scientists, the aerodynamicists, aircraft could not have been realized. Prof Anderson's book is one of the very few books which focuses on the intellectual adventurers that have given us the applied science of aerodynamics. This book is not an engineering text which has distilled the ideas of these scientists into what has worked and disregarded the rest. Rather Prof. Anderson has brought to life the great intellectual work of these thinkers. What was their environment, traditions , culture and education. What were their personal strengths and flaws , accomplishments sure, but also the dead ends. While there is some mathematics included, mostly in appendices, its presence is not intrusive. The book is completely accessible to the non-engineer. Of course engineers will find it pure excitement. Names which were only associated with some equation or idea, now come alive as thinkers. These men and women came to nature as awed by its mysteries as a Van Gogh. However, they capured nature, not by mixing paint and applying it to canavas , but by mixing mathematics and fundamental experiments to generalizations. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a curiosity about the foundations of modern technology.

Rating:
Summary: An extremely well written book that is a joy to read.
Review: The author has taken a very technical subject and created a fascinating book that is a joy to read.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent survey
Review: This book is almost sure to be the definitive treatment of this subject for many decades to come. As far as I know, it is the most comprehensive history of aerodynamics and its relationship to aircraft development. Speaking as someone who has been involved technically in aircraft design, I found it truly fascinating to learn how today's techniques and base of knowledge evolved through the interaction of theory, experiment, and engineering experience. I believe that this book will interest anyone who wants to understand how aircraft design has evolved and why airplanes were designed as they were at various times and places.

It is, as the title says, strictly about aerodynamics and does not cover many other matters of vital importance to aircraft design, such as structure, mass properties (like the inertial moments mentioned by another reviewer), propulsion, or systems. Moreover, it's about the principles of aerodynamics and does not cover many of the important aspects of its application to aircraft, such as propulsion system integration. Thus it is not by any means a comprehensive history of aircraft design and development. But it treats its one topic of the development of the principles of aerodynamics for aircraft very well.

The book does not assume any real technical knowledge of aerodynamics, although I imagine it could be somewhat tough going for someone who had no prior knowledge of the subject at all. There is a sprinkling of equations and a few mathematical arguments, but no one should be put off by them because (1) they are not complex (no calculus) and (2) you can skip over them if you are willing to take the author's word on what they mean. From my perspective, the author does a good job of explaining concepts clearly and correctly. He does not insult the expert's intelligence, while remaining accessible to those without deep knowledge. More technical details are given in appendices.

Of course it is impossible in any single book to cover all important developments in aircraft aerodynamics. This book is definitely slanted toward the fundamentals -- the Wright brothers don't appear until nearly halfway through the book. The author, himself an authority on modern aerodynamics, only very briefly sketches developments of the past 50 years, on the grounds that they are too much a story in progress to make for concise history.

For readers used to thinking of the US as the world leader in airplane development and manufacture, it may come as a surprise to learn how often America trailed behind in the development of aerodynamics and how fortunate Americans were to have escaped the worst consequences of their nation's past (and recent) neglect of research in this vital area. In light of the book's emphasis on this, it was a little surprising to find another reviewer criticizing it as too slanted toward US developments. In leafing through the index I see a strong preponderance of names from outside the US. In order to keep the book to "only" 450 pages of text, however, the author does often concentrate on the main theme in a given area and does not cite all of the parallel and supporting work elsewhere, leading to neglect of some non-US (and some US) efforts.

I particularly liked the way the book puts a human face on the story by giving brief biographical summaries of the people who have played key roles in aerodynamics development and sketching the times and circumstances in which they worked.

Readers hoping for a brief (and somewhat impressionistic) introduction rather than Anderson's more comprehensive approach may want to look up Theodore von Kármán's _Aerodynamics_ (1954) or John E. Allen's _Aerodynamics: A space age survey_ (1966). The standard broad surveys of the development of aircraft design and technology are Ronald Miller & David Sawers, _The Technical Development of Modern Aviation_ (1970) and Laurence K. Loftin, Jr., _Quest for Performance: The Evolution of Modern Aircraft_ (1985; NASA SP-468).

Will O'Neil

Rating:
Summary: Good Read -recommended
Review: This book is very good read indeed. Anderson sets out in meticulous detail the history of aerodynamics leading up to actual flight by the Wright Bros and then proceeds through the periods of World War 1 and II and jet flight. There are very few equations to deal with and the book is both descriptive an instructional. Although the book is a bit Americo-centric it does cover much of the early aerodynamic development elsewhere in the world with some notable exceptions for later periods. The book becomes a little unstuck when it starts to make unfavorable comparisons on the basis of efficiency between early European WWI fighters and the American WW I Jenny for example, a comparison which is really in the chalk and cheese category. The book also largely ignores roll moments of inertia (i.e. the basis of maneuverability) but seems to concentrate on aspect ratio and wing shape as its main yardstick in its comparisons, and this is a major weakness. It is also a bit weak on actual worldwide historical development and appearance of jet aircraft outside of America. Nevertheless, the subject matter is very engaging and overall it is well worth the purchase price and is strongly recommended for aviation buffs despite the niggling flaws.