The Bird Is on the Wing: Aerodynamics and the Progress of the American Airplane (Centennial of Flight Series, No. 6) [Hardcover]

James R. Hansen (Author)

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Review

“. . . a splendid overview of the R&D processes that characterized the evolution of American aerodynamics and aviation. The brevity and high readability of this study will make it an especially welcome addition to the literature on the history of flight. The author’s background in writing NASA aeronautical history also shines through in the quality of the sources cited. Hansen has clearly written for the general reader, and has eminently succeeded in constructing an informative narrative. The author has done a marvelous job of covering a considerable amount of territory, but has kept the narrative within bounds. The author’s depth of knowledge about the subject illuminates the entire book. Bravo.”--Roger Bilstein, University of Houston-Clear Lake

(Roger Bilstein, University of Houston-Clear Lake )

About the Author

James R. Hansen, a former NASA historian, teaches the history of science and technology and the history of flight at Auburn University. He has written a number of works in aviation history, including Engineer in Charge and Spaceflight Revolution. He holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Hansen has been chosen as the authorized biographer of Neil Armstrong, for a book to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2005.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press; 1st edition (November 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585442887
• ISBN-13: 978-1585442881
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,191,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. James R. Hansen is Professor of History and Director of the Honors College at Auburn University in Alabama. An expert in the history of science and technology, Hansen has written books and articles covering a wide variety of topics ranging from the early days of aviation, first nuclear fusion reactors, and Moon landings, to the environmental impact of golf courses.

His most recent book, FIRST MAN (Simon & Schuster, 2005), the first and only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon, spent three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and garnered major book awards, including the American Astronautical Society's Prize for Astronautical Literature, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Outstanding Book Award, and CHOICE magazine's Outstanding Academic Book of 2006. A two-volume Japanese translation of First Man has been published, with translations into German, Chinese, Turkish, French, and Croatian in progress.

In 1995 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration nominated his book SPACEFLIGHT REVOLUTION for a Pulitzer Prize, the only time NASA has ever made such a nomination. His book FROM THE GROUND UP(1988) won the History Book Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His scholarship has also been honored with the Robert H. Goddard Award from the National Space Club and certificates of distinction from the Air Force Historical Foundation. His other recent books, THE BIRD IS ON THE WING(Texas A&M University Press) and THE WIND AND BEYOND (NASA) explore the role of aerodynamics in the progress of the airplane in America. The latter is a six-volume series prepared by Hansen and a team of his graduate students for NASA, volume three of which is due to appear in late 2009. In 2005 THE WIND AND BEYOND won the Society for the History of Technology's Eugene Ferguson Prize for Outstanding Reference Work. His newest book, TRUTH, LIES, AND O-RINGS: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER DISASTER was published in May 2009 by the University Press of Florida, with co-author Allan J. McDonald.

Although most of his scholarly work has dealt with aerospace history, Hansen has also made his mark on the field of golf course history. He has published numerous articles on the subject in golf magazines and given scholarly and public presentations on the history of golf course architecture in the United States, Canada, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. He is currently working on the authorized biography of Robert Trent Jones, Sr., the eminent American golf course architect whose work came to define many features of American golf. He has published numerous articles in golf course magazines and for the past 12 years has been a golf course rater for Golfweek. An avid golfer since youth, Jim played college golf and was co-captain of his team for two years.

A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, he graduated summa cum laude and with Honors from Indiana University. He earned his Ph.D. at The Ohio State University in 1981. Jim has taught history at Auburn University since 1986. Both his teaching and his scholarship have received numerous awards from the university including the Teaching Excellence Award in the Humanities, an Alumni Professorship, the Outstanding Teacher in the Core Curriculum, and the Office of the Vice President for Research's Creative Research Award. In 2005, he was inducted into the College of Liberal Arts' Academy of Teaching and Outstanding Scholars.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding History of Aerodynamics R&D in America, April 4, 2006

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bird is on the Wing: Aerodynamics and the Progress of the American Airplane (Paperback)

James R. Hansen, a friend and colleague on the faculty at Auburn University, has fundamentally altered the landscape of the history of aviation with this exceptionally significant study of the evolution of aerodynamics. This study began as the introduction to a multi-volume documentary history of aerodynamics research in the United States sponsored by the NASA History Program, the first volume of which ("The Wind and Beyond: A Documentary Journey into the History of Aerodynamics in America," NASA SP-2003-4409, 2003). This book is a revision of the introductory essays from that documentary work, and in itself offers an outstanding appraisal of this aspect of twentieth century engineering.

"The Bird is on the Wing" is an important statement of the evolution of aerodynamic research and development (R&D) and how it created the modern aircraft. Hansen focuses on key episodes to the development of the airplane, which he calls the defining technology of the twentieth century. And if the airplane was the defining technology of the last century, aerodynamics was the defining element of the technology, a fact Hansen well establishes in the first chapter. From there he explores the birth of the airplane, the quest for faster than sound speeds, the supersonic design revolution, the rise and fall of the supersonic transport (SST), the evolution of the jetliner, and recent and forthcoming developments.

This is a worthy introduction to the history of aerodynamics R&D in the United States. It may be read with profit alone, but also as a sophisticated analysis of the story told in a more linear fashion in John D. Anderson Jr.'s "A History of Aerodynamics: And Its Impact on Flying Machines" (Cambridge University Press, 1997). As editor of the "Centennial of Flight Series" in which "The Bird is on the Wing" appears, I am pleased to recommend it as an outstanding history that recounts the development of a major technology during the first century of flight.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent, December 27, 2010

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Goody - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Bird is on the Wing: Aerodynamics and the Progress of the American Airplane (Paperback)

After just finishing the book myself, I would say that overall it's worth reading. However, at the very minimum a basic standing in aeronautics is required. The main concentration of the text is on the pre Wright and sonic flight eras. But it also goes into mildly how some of the basic concepts where found/formulated. The book itself, mentions that it's a precursor to a series of in-depth books due to come out, so the basic theme is not an in-depth and all encompassing material but to merely breeze over most of the big name ideas. It gleams over the past 100 years or so of aviation in a brevity 220 pages of paper. I would say that the book is worth the money if the reader has a understanding of aeronautics and once to be able to have readable and not a text book.