It's Pretty Enough, But It's Not Just a 'Coffee-Table
Book'
The American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics commissioned The Airplane: A History of Its
Technology, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of powered
flight. Unlike the other centennial books recently published, it
explores the technology that made flight possible. Non-technical
and technical readers will find this book fascinating reading.
The Wright brothers' famous flight could have taken place
inside the Space Shuttle's giant fuel tank. Anyone who wonders how
we got from there to here, in just one century, should read this
book. It's better than science fiction ... it is science
reality. -- Norman R. Augustine, Retired Chairman and CEO,
Lockheed Martin Corporation
The Airplane 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 "worked on the shoulders of giants."
Indeed, if Orville and Wilbur had not entered the field of
aeronautics, and their momentous flight on December 17, 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 will answer those questions. It is a history of the
technology of the airplane, written with the non-technical reader
in mind, but telling a story that the technical reader can also
enjoy. This 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.
Info:
The Airplane: A History of Its Technology, John D.
Anderson Jr., published by the American Institute of Aeronautics,
December 2002, 369 pages, Hardcover, ISBN 1-56347-525-1, $75. Order
from AIAA, Publications Customer Service, P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA
20172-0960, Phone 800/682-2422, FAX 703/661-1501