Customer Reviews

Tailless Aircraft

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I have very mixed emotions about this book. I purchased it after some research that showed it to be one of the primary citations for nearly every other book on the subject of tailless aircraft design. In fact, it was the ONE book that showed up in nearly every bibleography.

In one sense, the book succeeds. The authors are obviously well-versed in the field and possess a practical, first-hand knowledge as well that can give the thoughtful reader a solid insight into the special problems and concern associated with this type of aircraft. That's the strongest part of this book.

The weaknesses, unfortunately, are many. The authors explicitly state that they are mathematicians, but that they will NOT be devoting the text to the theoretical treatise you might expect from such authors. They then proceed to structure the book EXACTLY like a theorist would, with a theoretical foundation laid first and then slowly expanding into practical applications. There is no dividing line between the two, and it's hard for the practical reader to find a solid starting point at which to begin. The theoretical material is, indeed, important, but there is no practical presentation for the later sections of the book, only derivations of formulas in the beginning.

The second weakness relates to the authors themselves. The entire book is pointed at sailplane, RC model, and hang-glider development - the areas the authors themselves find most interesting. Light aircraft are given short shrift. The entire book is geared towards optimization of induced drag. The other 'problem' relating to the authors derives, I believe, from the era in which they developed their practical experience. Nickel, for example, worked in the '30's with the Hortens, and both the time and the Hortesn were less concerned with what we would today call desirable flying characteristics. Dynamic stability and control, for example, is ignored completely except for some casual references.

The last problem is in editing - a couple of key formulas are simply incorrect (2.7.3 - Horten Pfielmass, 2.7.4 - E-point). I was able to finally deduce the correct formula on one of them using the examples provided in the book, but the other remains a mystery unless I want to try and re-derive it from the theoretical foundation in the earlier part of the book.

I hate to give this book a negative review. If it were any other subject, where I knew there were better references, I'd simply tell you to save your money and get one of the others. The problem here is that there ISN'T a better reference. This It's probably a good reflection upon the primitive state of tailless aircraft design that this is the best reference there is.

Is the book worth the price? For the casual reader, absolutely not. If you're serious about tailless aircraft design and don't mind using this book as a launching point for your own research(rather than a definitive resource), then it's a must-have and worth every penny. You just have to deeply understand before your purchase that this book is NOT going to answer all of your questions, but rather point you in the directions you'll need to research yourself.