Description
The purpose of the present edition is the same as that of the first six: to present the basic fundamentals of aerospace engineering at the introductory level in the clearest, simplest, and most motivating way possible. Because the book is meant to be enjoyed as well.l as understood, I have made every effort to ensure a clear and readable text. The choice of subject matter and its organization, the order in which topics are introduced, and how these ideas are explained have been carefully planned with the uninitiated reader in mind. Because the book is intended as a self-contained text at the first-and second-year levels, I avoid tedious details and massive “handbook” data. Instead, I introduce and discuss fundamental concepts in a manner that is as straightforward and clean-cut as possible, knowing that the book has also found favor with those who wish to leam something about this subject outside the classroom.
The overwhelmingly favorable response to the earlier editions from students, teachers, and practicing professionals both here and abroad is a source of gratification. Particularly pleasing is the fact that those using the book have enjoyed reading its treatment of the fascinating, challenging, and sometimes awesome discipline of aerospace engineering.
Thanks to this response, the contents of the sixth edition have been carried over into the seventh edition with only minor modifications. A hallmark of this book is the use of specially designed devices to enhance the readers’ understanding of the material. In particular, these features are carried over from the sixth edition:
1. Road maps placed at the beginning of each chapter help guide the reader through the logical flow of the material.
2. Design boxes discuss interesting and important applications of the fundamental material; these are literally set apart in boxes.
3. Preview boxes at the chapter beginnings give the reader insight into what each chapter is about and why the material is important. I intend the preview boxes to be motivational, to make the reader interested and curious enough to pay close attention to the content of the chapter. These preview boxes are written in an informal manner to help tum the reader on to the content. In these preview boxes, I am unabashedly admitting to providing some fun for the readers.
In the same spirit, the seventh edition contains new material intended to enhance the education and interest of the reader:
1. The summary sections at the end of each chapter, which previously just listed the important equations developed and discussed in that chapter, have been expanded to “Summary and Review” sections. In these new sections, the important ideas and concepts presented in each chapter are reviewed, first without equations, to remind readers about the physical aspects of the material and to provide a focused intellectual background for the equations that are then summarized at the end of the section.
2. The section on uninhabited aerial vehicles (Section 6.20) has been expanded to include some of the basic methodology for their design, as well as more description of their expanding use.
3. A new Section 6.21 on “Micro Air Vehicles” has been added, briefly describing what they are and their missions. This section also discusses the low-Reynolds-number aerodynamic problems encountered by such small vehicles, not present in ordinary flight vehicles.
4. Additional worked Examples further help readers to understand how to use what they have been reading.
s. Additional homework problems grace the end of most chapters. New to this edition is an answer key, found at the end of the book, for selected homework problems.
All told, the new materian represents a meaningful enhancement of Introduction to Flight.