Customer Reviews

The Airplane: A History of Its Technology (Library of Flight Series)

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3 star:		(1)
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With the publication of John Anderson's seminal overview of the history of aerodynamics, "A History of Aerodynamics, and Its Impact on Flying Machines" (Cambridge University Press, 1997), the former Glenn L. Martin Distinguished Professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland and current curator for aerodynamics at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum established himself as the preeminent interpreter of the history of flight technology in the United States. This book solidifies Anderson's stature with its outstanding analysis of the evolution of the airplane from its origins before the Wright brothers through the design revolution wrought by the advent of jet propulsion.

Anderson begins with an introduction that serves as chapter 1. He then offers six additional chapters chronologically exploring the development of aeronautics. These include: (2) aeronautical thought and research before the nineteenth century, (3) work during the nineteenth century but before the Wright brothers, (4) the efforts of the Wrights and their revolutionary Flyer, (5) the era of the strut-and-wire biplane which Anderson characterizes as "seat-of-the-pants" design, (6) the development of the mature propeller-driven airplane which the author considers the first design revolution, (7) and the second design revolution wrought by jet propulsion.

This work is written for the general reader, and Anderson does a fine job of communicating difficult concepts without reliance on jargon and a plethora of equations. There are a few of the latter, but they are kept to a minimum and the author takes pains to explain them clearly. This is also a large format book well illustrated with diagrams and photographs that do much than just decorate the text by serving to illustrate the principles of flight.

Anderson also does a good job of demonstrating the state of the art of flight at critical points in the evolution of the airplane. For example, while most people believe that Wilbur and Orville Wright "invented" the airplane, Anderson shows that the idea of the airplane predated them by centuries and that they inherited a considerable body of knowledge about the principles of flight. This, and their own work, enabled the Wrights to fly the first successful airplane. Others following in their footsteps significantly advanced knowledge about the technology of flight and brought us to the point we are now. Always, Anderson explores the evolution of the major technologies required for flight: aerodynamics, materials and structures, propulsion, guidance and control, and the systems and processes that guide the development of any airplane.

While there are no footnotes in the text, there is a bibliography and Anderson often refers to specific publications in his text. Prepared in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of powered flight, this is quite an excellent work and highly recommended.

This book is terrific. But let me introduce my background first, so you know my perspective. I have passed two PhD qualification exams (both at first try) in Material Science and Engineering, and Electrical Engineering in a top research university, but have never taken a class in fluid mechanics or aeronautics, or read any book on them. I got this book about a week ago, and have finished all of its 358 pages. Although an early sleeper, several nights I read it until 2am in the morning. This book is very clear, and no doubt is a masterpiece written by a grand master for everyone, unlike some books that were written by genius for genius. I have some trouble understanding the engines due to the lack of my background. I guess I need an introduction book on engine to make that up. Other than that, I would say I understand the rest pretty well. A little complaint here: the index sometime does not include some of the technical terminology. For example, I missed the definition of "camber ratio" the first time, and had a hard time to find it later.
This is the first book review I wrote, simply because this book is so good. Too bad the highest review one can give in Amazon is only 5 stars. This book flies way above it.

This work covers excellently the first 40 years of flight, up to and through the golden years of the piston aircraft. That is unlikely to be bettered for a long time. The remaining period to the present is covered much less comprehensively, but remains an good introduction to the salient features of this -as seen from a USA perspective.

This is a clever book by a clever man. It deservedly won Outstanding Academic Title honors by the American Library Association. While the book is conversational in tone and sprinkled with quotes and anecdotes, heavy-duty scientific principles such as aerodynamic force (trigonometry; gasp) are explained and illustrated with minimal discomfort to the reader. Anderson treats an aircraft as a system combining aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and flight dynamics and the book examines the parameters for and development of each of those aspects. This sort of book stands and falls with the quality of the written word and by that criteria this book is exemplary. The illustrations, on the other hand, serve their primary purpose--clarifying and supporting the text--but do little else and by and large have no photographic or storytelling strengths, which is not helped by being small and b/w.

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After having read Anderson's wonderful book A History of Aerodynamics and his college text Introduction to Flight, I looked forward to a full historical coverage of technology as a whole in the history of aircraft. That is not really what we have here. Rather there are three chapters taking us up to the Wright brothers with lots of well presented material that has I must say been just as well covered in some of the other references Anderson himself cites.Then three chapters take us through the strut and wire biplance, the mature propeller driven airplance and the modern jet aircraft. In these three chapters are a lot of interesting stories about technology development but they seem to represent just those areas that the author has specific interest in and there is not a strong attempt to construct or de-construct any coherent narrative.
Specific shortcomings include ignoring a great deal of aeronuatical engineering going on the United Kingdom and paying attention to German developments only as they affected American activities. Apparently there was not much aviation technology going on anywhere else and perhaps that was really the case. If so, that should at least have been explained in some fashion. In addition, since Anderson is an aerodynamicist, structural technology is covered less extensively and less intensively, and the whole area of aircraft power (non-propulsive) and control systems is just taken for granted.
The main problem with this book is not what is in it, but what is not in it to justify the grand title. If you are an aviation enthusiast at whatever technical level, this is a good book to buy and enjoyable to own and read but I rated it three stars to warn about expectations. To give due credit to John Anderson, the Preface to the book makes clear this is a personal choice of stories and if you could read the Preface before you buy the book, you wouldn't need this review. Unfortunately, the Inside feature starts with the first chapter.