I was recently made aware of this free and downloadable book
Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators by H H Hurt Jr It must be one of the most comprehensive books about technical/operational aspects aviation I have ever seen. It’s all there, literally, and highest quality as a reference.
@LeSving all courtesy of the USA taxpayer, an excellent principles of flight primer
Written in the 50’s … not sure if the information presented can still be used at face value. While the laws of aerodynamics did obviously not change since then, I’m not sure their understanding hasn’t changed and/or got more comprehensive since then.
Introduction to Flight by Anderson tends to be an Aerodynamics 101/201 text, and am not aware that the teaching of aerodynamics at this stage has changed due to new discoveries in wing design, physics or mathematical models.
Surely it has a place in today studies, the core reading list of aerodynamics course at Imperial College were Anderson books…
RobertL18C wrote:
Introduction to Flight by Anderson tends to be an Aerodynamics 101/201 text, and am not aware that the teaching of aerodynamics at this stage has changed due to new discoveries in wing design, physics or mathematical models.
You sure? Certainly in Computer Science introductory courses today are taught quite differently compared to 40 years ago. (I know that aviation is some 40 years older than CS, but still.)
Am sure the computer modelling must be much more modern :) just thinking about the basics and the calculus exercises
If anybody would like to read a great book on the fundamentals of aerodynamics, I can only recommend McLean’s book “Understanding Aerodynamics”. It has an entire chapter explaining why most theories circulating around are wrong. It’s my default response when anybody asks me how lift works.
Also this presentation of his is very good:
Also, on a more “philosophical” level, we ultimately don’t know why physics are the way they are. We can provide answers up to a certain level, but if you keep asking “why” you soon hit a wall. This was explained beautifully by Feinman:
We really don’t need to know that much “why” things work (physics), but more the “how” they work (engineering).
MedEwok wrote:
While the laws of aerodynamics did obviously not change since then, I’m not sure their understanding hasn’t changed and/or got more comprehensive since then.
In regard to knowledge applicable to light aircraft design what has been forgotten since the late ‘50s is probably a more extensive list than what may have been learned. ‘Color For Dollars’ (CFD or Computational Fluid Dynamics) is newer than that time but I don’t believe it has led to much difference in understanding, versus being another way to get the same answer given the same basic understanding.
Cowling aerodynamics design methodology may have improved.
Alpha_Floor wrote:
If anybody would like to read a great book on the fundamentals of aerodynamics, I can only recommend McLean’s book “Understanding Aerodynamics”. It has an entire chapter explaining why most theories circulating around are wrong. It’s my default response when anybody asks me how lift works
Bernoulli is wrong: or how tse wings will generate lift when flying upside down?
Newton is wrong: downward momentum induced by wing is incorrect (Doug McLean, Understanding Aerodynamics, p. 433)
So one has top introduce junky circulation maths to calculate lift, but they are still non-intuitive to explain it
This would be the best paper one can get without getting swamped
http://www3.eng.cam.ac.uk/outreach/Project-resources/Wind-turbine/howwingswork.pdf local copy