Customer Reviews

The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets

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This a fascinating look at how things fly. Insects, birds and airplanes all obey the same aerodynamic principles. With a few simple equations and copious examples the author explains lift, drag, wing loading, cruising speed and other aerodynamic concepts.

His descriptions of how birds fly, how much energy their flight requires and how they meet the challenge is as exciting as any adventure story. We learn that the pectoral muscles of birds can metabolize fats directly(Human muscles burn sugars which the liver must first convert from fat). But flying is hard work. After 12 hours of cruising a migrating swan will clock 650 miles and lose more than a kilogram of body weight. Thus the importance of bird sanctuaries. Migrating birds must feed to continue their journies.

Moving on to airplanes we learn that the Concorde uses 70 tons of kerosene to cross the ocean carrying 100 passengers. The 747 uses the same amount of fuel but carries 350 people and 30 tons of freight. This book explains why.

This book is filled with fascinating facts about flight, but charts, tables and illustrations tie them all together. There are a few equations but they are there to enlighten. The author doesn't overwhelm you with mathematics. This book is a must read.

This delightful little book is an introduction to some major aspects of flight. Not all of them. There isn't much on strength of materials, for example. This book concentrates on the fundamental issues of how much power it takes to fly and what size a flying machine ought to be to make optimal use of its power. What makes the book so much fun is the inclusion of flight characteristics of birds and insects.

Tennekes starts with a chart of weight versus cruising speed for the insects, birds, and planes. Next, he discusses wing sizes. Then fuel consumption, strategies for takeoffs and landings, and gliding.

The author concludes with some praise for the design of the Boeing 747. All commercial passenger planes are best off flying as fast as possible without getting too near the speed of sound, so Mach 0.9 is best. These planes are best off flying high enough to take advantage of the cooler air and good weather: a height of 10 kilometers is ideal. To match the cruising speed with the optimal wing loading at that height, one gets an airplane which is roughly the size and shape of a Boeing 747.

I highly recommend this book.

Since years I love the aviation, only for curiosity I bought this book, and in one morning I've enjoyed too much and learnt a lot about aerodynamics, fuel consumption, the migration of birds(really interesting), the forces in skating! etc. It is a book with of 120 pages really educative and comprenhensible, all questions I made in my mind reading the book were answered a few pages ahead. If you are interested in planes, want to know how simple they fly, even loose the fear, and learn all this in easy way and learn about more things you never thought in relation with planes, this is your book. Is any commision for me??hahaha.
Enjoy it.

General readers interested in learning the basics behind the physics of flying won't need to look any further than this slim volume from Prof. Henk Tennekes. In addition to being a fine introduction to how things fly, the book is a quick and easy read at only 130-odd pages.

The book's final chapter, devoted to the Boeing 747 and its competitors, makes a compelling argument that the 747 is the most most efficient and well engineered plane in history.

This book is definately the most outstanding source for basic aeronautical science. The author's unique perspective, looking at a 747 as compared to a budgy, is a tremendous help in explaining various concepts, from finesse to fuel economy. Although it is not an intense calculus based textbook, it does a great job of making you understand how and why things occur.

Mr. Tennekes analogies between birds and aircraft will make you realize the commanality of the two previously distinct subjects. I strongly believe that no one, or at least not many, ar above this book. With everything from sailplanes to skating, supersonic flight to hovering explained, this book should appeal to anyone remotely interested in the subject.

This little book (130 pages) using just 3 or 4 very simple algebraic equations tells the story behind the fundmental designs of insects, birds, kites, ..., jumbo jets. So why should anyone cares? Because flight is mysterious, fascinating, and obviously complicated - for birds as well as for the jets. Yet, all the flights are related and dictated by a few very simple formulas. In less than 4 pages, this book will tell you why Boeing 747 is the most successful aircraft ever produced, why it MUST weight about 350 tons, why it MUST cruise at 560 mph at 40,000 feet, why the size of the 747 is out of the control of the Boeing engineers (even though they might not think so). Why a 350-ton 747 can make tons of money for its owner, but not a future 1,000-ton ultra-jumbo. It is incredible that how some simple math can tell us so much about such an esoteric and complicated subject. If your kids (or little brothers/sisters) ever ask you about why bother learning math, tell them the stories from this book. We need more teachers like Professor Tennekes to make us enjoy and appreciate all that math we struggled with in high school - which many many people will probably never find any use in real life!

There is just one thing I found a little puzzling about this book. Professor Tennekes does not once mention the Bernoulli's effect. His simple but powerful equations have airspeed as the key paramter in all winged flights, but not the relative difference of air speed above the wing and below the wing, which according to Bernoulli, as taught in our high school physics, is what generates the lifting force. Could there be more than just the Bernoulli's effect invovled here?

So whether we're talking about a bumblebee or a Boeing 747, the same physics are at work? This book does a great job of explaining how the same basic principles apply to all flight, and the physiological differences that allow both a jetliner and a monarch butterfly to sustain flight. The physics are well-outlined, and are simple enough for anyone with some HS algebra to grasp. Still, in between the formulas, the writing is lively and entertaining, and entertaining to anyone with an interest in aerodynamics.

I own about a dozen books about aircraft design, flight, aerodynamics and more. There is nothing quite like this one.

Perfect narration, beautiful illustrations, but most of all, a clarity of thought that is staggering. I closed the book with a much better understanding of what I was doing. Highly recommended.

This brief, handsome, book explains a few of the basic mathematical principles governing speed and efficiency of flight. You don't need anything more advanced than high school algebra to comprehend the material but you, like me, may have to work a little bit if you haven't used math in a while. The author focuses on birds and jets but mentions insects, human powered aircraft, gliders, kites, and even pteranodon's. I found the treatment of the force triangle obscure (the skating analogy didn't help). I also wish the author had developed more topics (for example, I was left wondering why an angle of attack of 6 degrees is common).

It's a pity that Tennekes moved to the USA, State College, Pennsylvania. If he had stayed in Holland and become a professor in Delft, graduating in aerospace engineering would have been much easier for me. This guy loves aircraft more than mathematics ! The best place to read this book is during a long trip on a 747