Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.