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Overview
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2003
This book was commissioned in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Powered Flight. It is written by one the most respected authors in the aerospace world. John D. Anderson Jr. is curator for aerodynamics at the National Air and Space Museum, Professor Emeritus, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, and the author of several world-renowned textbooks.
Contrary to popular belief, the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane; rather they invented the first successful airplane. The concept of the airplane was invented a hundred years earlier, and the Wrights inherited a century's worth of prior aeronautical research and development. The Wrights did not work in a vacuum; they admitted that they "stood on the shoulders of giants." Indeed, if Orville and Wilbur had not entered the field of aeronautics, and their momentous flight on 17 December 1903 had not taken place, the first successful airplane would have been invented by someone else within the decade. The time was right. The Wrights were the right people at the right time.
Just what aeronautical technology did the Wrights inherit from their predecessors? How much was right? How much was wrong? Who were the major players in the development of this technology and why?
This book answers those questions. It is a history of the technology of the airplane, written with the nontechnical reader in mind, but telling a story that the technical reader can also enjoy. That history begins centuries before the Wright brothers, and takes us to the present day.
"After you finish this book, I hope that the next time you get on an airplane, you will feel the history of its technology. If you do, then I will have accomplished my goal." — John D. Anderson Jr.
Technical and nontechnical readers alike will find this book fascinating reading.
Synopsis
Seeking to foster "... a better appreciation of how inventors and aeronautical engineers have toiled over the past two centuries to design and build flying machines to slip 'the surly bonds of Earth'...," Anderson (aerospace engineering, U. of Maryland; National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution) presents a history of aviation landmarks. He covers fledgling attempts in the 19th century, the Wright flyer, seat-of-the-pants biplane design, the first design revolution of propeller-driven airplanes, and the second revolution of jet-propelled airplanes. Includes illustrations of classic aircraft. AIAA is the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR