Textbooks

I'm currently chewing my way through my third aerodynamics textbook: I started with Anderson's Principles of Flight (**** because of all the historical context), then I tried to move up in detail by getting Kuethe & Chow's Foudations of Aerodynamics (*** because math is too heavy), and now I'm on Dommasch, Sherby, and Connolly's Airplane Aerodynamics, which I'll give ***** because it manages to open the door on every aerodynamic topic I can think of, and will provide the necessary background to take another run at Keuthe & Chow's book.

Any suggestions as to where I should go from here?



STF

 

[IRstuff]

Where do you want to go, e.g., what's end goal here?

TTFN

 

[macoovacany]

"open the door on every aerodynamic topic I can think of..."
Does it have anything to say on diffusers? This is a topic I found particularly difficult to find information on. Especially trying to optimise the pressure recovery versus the drag increase. (For example, some of the Lanceair IV Turbine aircraft were fitted with NACA duct inlets which provided low pressure recovery. Other's were fitted with pitot (or nearly so) inlets to get maximum pressure recovery and damn the drag.)
Another difficult topic is Stabilator design. Where do you put the hinge line? First thought: quater chord. Piper design: ~0.4c. What's the gearing ratio of the tab to the stabilator?


Timbo

 

[Falcon8]

It depends on what you're looking for. There are several books that summarize a lot of aerodynamics topics. One (and the best for mefor general aerodynamics) is McCormick's "Aerodynamics, Aeronautics and...". Others are Horner's "Fluid Dynamic Drag: Practical Information on Aerodynamic ..." and "Fluid-Dynamic Lift: Practical Information on Aerodynamic....". If you are only in need of important aerodynamic data this last two wil be really usefull, because in them you can find a lot of curves and formulae for calculating drag or lift of almost everything you can imagine.
McCormick's book is a good reference, but if you've read Kuethe y Chow perhaps will disappoint you at first because is a bit desorganized. But when you find what you need, you have everything ypou need there.
There's other good book (really old too) written by Schlichting, but I don't really remember it's name. as soon as I get it I'll write again.
I hope you find this useful, and in case not, ask again hehe.

Falcon 8

 

[Sparweb]

I have access to Hoerner's Drag and Lift books at work - very useful to me so far.

I deal mostly with aircraft structures, so my main interest is methods of determining structural loads from aerodynamic principles. Other things, like optimization of aerodynamic surfaces are less concretely useful to me, though of interest regardless.

I have only general information about diffusers at my disposal at the moment; a bit more looking might turn up something. Stabilators also leave me dry for info. I tried Niu's Airframe Structural Design, which has lots of configuration drawings and ideas for internal structure, but it doesn't cover issues like their placement.

More replies like Falcon8 are welcome ("What do YOU use?&quot


STF