Flight Vehicle Performance and Aerodynamic Control is designed to serve as a text for either an 11-week or a 16-week course at the sophomore level. It explains typical methods used to estimate aircraft performance, the theoretical basis of these methods, and how various parameters derived from the aircraft geometry can be used to estimate the requirements of control surfaces and the aerodynamic forces required to actuate these surfaces.
This book includes time-tested computer programs that perform the analyses in a manner that reduces student error and improves result accuracy. Because the source code is given, users with a FORTRAN compiler can modify the program to suit particular needs. The major advantage of the software is that more realistic problems may be treated and the effects of parametric programs are more accurate than calculators. The programs are available as executables for Windows machines as well as in ASCII source code versions that can be readily compiled and then executed on Unix, Linux, and Macintosh machines, and on mainframes.
Smetana (emeritus, engineering, North Carolina State U.) writes a text for second-year university engineering students. The volume's purpose is to explain typical methods used to estimate aspects of the performance of aircraft and the theoretical basis of these methods. Also addressed is the matter of how various parameters derived from the aircraft geometry can be used to estimate the size, shape, and location requirements of vertical and horizontal control surfaces and the aerodynamic forces required to actuate these surfaces. Included with the volume are source and executable versions of software on CD- ROM that can do performance and control force analyses, primarily presented as a pedagogical tool and not just as for computation purposes. Material on aircraft stability is mostly excluded from the volume. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
