Customer Reviews

Aeroplanes

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It's pretty obvious that a book from 1915 will not be an up to date text on aerodynamics, but this book fails even in being a useful view of the art and science of the time.

This was written by a mechanical engineer who had several other guides for boys published. He apparently knew absolutely nothing about aerodynamics and didn't seem to care to learn.

It seem that his main thesis is that all others working in the field missed the fact that orbital mechanics are a major factor in holding an airplane up. He states that at a speed of 100 mph 'motion which is nearly sufficient to maintain it in horizontal flight, independently of any plane surface'. Well in reality, the speed required would be more like 18,000 mph.

He dismisses the fact that concave bottom surfaces of the wing produce lift with 'Certain kinds of beetles, and particularly the common house
fly, disprove that theory, as their wings are perfectly flat'.

It would seem that someone tasked with providing an introduction to aerodynamics and aviation for children would have done better to try to summarize the current thinking on the matter, rather than advance his own crackpot hypotheses.

To realize that a publisher, even then, would sell this to technically minded children, is a frightening thought.