Understanding Flight

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Summary

Aimed at an adult audience, Understanding Flight is an ambitious book. It aims to explain complex aerodynamic principles and technologies that make airplanes possible by using simple diagrams in about 300 pages.

The Good

The technical facts in the book were very well researched. I have to say, I was impressed. Some of the concepts covered are very hard to understand, much less explain clearly in a non-technical fashion. There are lots of technical explanations in the book, and they are all competently written.

Most pages have inset boxes with interesting bits of aviation trivia. A lot of the trivia was new to me, which was a surprise. That's hard to do with an aviation buff like me.

The Bad

The writing and editing is competent but not the best. I caught an occasional typo. Some of the sentences were poorly worded. There were a couple of sentences that I reread several times because I couldn't understand what the author was trying to tell me. In the end I always had to give up.

Some might argue that this is the type of material that one can find for free on Wikipedia. That may be true for a lot of it, but the quality of the illustrations, the consistency in the writing style, and the convenience of a well-organized printed book are hard to beat.

I found the lack of a bibliography a bit bizarre. Given that this is an introductory book to a complex subject, it is very natural to feel a need to look for more in-depth information elsewhere.

The Ugly

The book is humorless. The writing style is somewhat conversational, but it is pretty dry. The boxes with the trivia struck me as an attempt to lighten up the book. Unfortunately, for me the trivia was just a distraction. It rarely had anything to do with the text surrounding it. Rather than enhance the text, most of the time the trivia just made me lose my train of thought.

The author did a great job of researching his facts, but sometimes he fails to connect the dots. For example, he first explains that the larger the diameter of a propeller, the more efficient it can be at producing a given amount of thrust. Then he goes on to talk about multibladed propellers. When he explains why they are less efficient than two-bladed propellers, he fails to make what I thought was an obvious connection. With more blades, the diameter of the propeller has to be less, which leads to lower overall propeller efficiency. I agree with the explanation that he provided, but it struck me as incomplete.

Conclusion

This is a good book. Very well researched, the facts about airplanes are presented clearly. There is lots and lots of good information here. I actually learned a thing or two about airplanes from reading this book. Given how much time I have spent doing my own research, that is hard to do.

I own the second edition of the book. From the description of the changes since the first edition in the book's introduction, it seems to me that grabbing a used copy of the first edition would be a good bargain purchase. In other words, most people would be perfectly happy with the first edition. There are many copies of this earlier edition available for $5 or less. They would make an excellent buy.

http://www.rcadvisor.com/ founder - Home of the best model airplane calculator. Free!

Author of RCadvisor's Model Airplane Design Made Easy and other books.

Host of Ask the RCadvisor in the free weekly http://www.thecrashcast.com/ podcasts.

AMA Scientific Leader and Contest Director #4601.

Book Review: World's Strangest Aircraft

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Summary

A large format book with lots of large pictures and less than 100 pages, this is a quick read. This is what some would call a coffee table book.

Organized into five chapters, each one tackles a broad category of aircraft. For example, chapter three is titled "The Desperate Struggle" and it covers military experimental aircraft from World War II. Chapter four is mostly about tailless designs. The last chapter is a general catch-all chapter covering general oddball aircraft, including helicopters.

An introduction to each chapter sets the stage for the aircraft covered. Then, one paragraph is devoted to each specimen.

The Good

There are a lot of airplanes in this book that I don't remember seeing anywhere else. Specially the first two chapters on early aviation pioneers before World War II, which are filled with wonderfully interesting airplanes. There are many fascinating Russian aircraft throughout the book, but specially in these early chapters.

Generally speaking, the pictures chosen for the book nail their subjects. They are great. Many in full color, all contain lots of details that really bring their subjects to life.

This book is a very easy read. The writing is solid, tying together all the aircraft discussed very nicely.

The Bad

I did not find any typos, but there is a picture caption that is missing its picture. That did not look so good.

Most pictures do not contain enough detail to even begin designing a scale model. That really was not a surprise. There is only one picture per aircraft, and many are side profile ground shots. In other words, there is no information provided on the shape of the wing.

I was already familiar with maybe a third of the aircraft in the book. Even in these cases, the text proved interesting and the pictures were great, bringing these aircraft to life in new ways I had not experienced before.

The Ugly

There are almost no specifications included for the aircraft. Oddly, just about the only specification that one can count on finding for each subject is the horsepower for its engines. Airplane dimensions are almost never given. It seems that the horsepower ratings are used as a stand-in for more detailed aircraft specs. Any other numbers that are provided strictly depends on whether the author found them interesting.

There are no pictures included for many of the aircraft discussed. This was a major disappointment. A paragraph of text without a picture is just not enough to get much of value out of it. I would have preferred it if the author had left out these aircraft entirely and either expanded the text for the other airplanes or included a second picture from a different angle.

Conclusion

This book does a great job of what it set out to do. It is filled with great pictures of lots of very interesting aircraft. The text is a good complement to the pictures and adds interesting details to these aircraft. Just do not expect it to be a great resource for a scale modeler.

Used copies of this book are very inexpensive. I only paid a couple of bucks for mine and it was in great shape. I definitely do not regret making the purchase.

http://www.rcadvisor.com/ founder - Home of the best model airplane calculator. Free!

Author of RCadvisor's Model Airplane Design Made Easy and other books.

Host of Ask the RCadvisor in the free weekly The Crash Cast podcasts.

AMA Scientific Leader and Contest Director #4601.