https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/introduction-to-flight_john-d-anderson-jr/334046/item/41780298
Introduction to Flight has most principle of flight equations, the drag curve in its glory requiring quite a big chunk of blackboard and chalk to write down.
The US navy kindly provides Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators free as a .pdf
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34707.Aerodynamics_for_Naval_Aviators
LeSving wrote:
One might argue that exchanging speed for alt or vice versa is a waste of energy, as converting one form of energy to another form always includes losses.
Yes most altitude/speed kinetic-potential energy conversions do make CAS/AoA oscillates, that indeed will result in energy loss due to “convex shape of drag curve with respect to AoA/CAS”
If you fly a constant CAS/AoA and constant 1G, the aircraft should not not know if it is going up or down or level, or gaining height or losing it, of course ignoring short effects from accelerations when you level-off or push down…
The fact that we don’t fly on G-load sensor & AoA sensor makes our flying inefficient to answer that “max range question”, as one tends to think about speed & altitude while thinking about “min time question”…
the drag curve in its glory requiring quite a big chunk of blackboard and chalk to write down.
Yes, exactly, which is what puzzles me when I see the “simple” equations somewhere. I think a lot of people just like to, ahem, publish something…
