Product Description
The first of its kind, Journey to the Moon details the history and design of the computer that enabled U.S. astronauts to land on the moon. In describing the evolution of the Apollo Guidance Computer, Mr. Hall contends that the development of the Apollo computer supported and motivated the semiconductor industry during a period of time when integrated circuits were just emerging. This was the period just before the electronics revolution that gave birth to modern computers.

In addition, the book recalls the history of computer technology, both hardware and software, and the applications of digital computing to missile guidance systems and manned spacecraft. The book also offers graphics and photos drawn from the Draper Laboratories' archives that illustrate the technology and related events during the Apollo project.

Written for experts as well as lay persons, Journey to the Moon is the first book of its kind and a must for anyone interested in the history of science and the relevance of computer technology to space exploration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Story of an Amazing Acheivement
The book presents a close-up look at the challenges of devising new and novel technological solutions from the unique perspective of a person who was there when it was happening. The stories of some of the people behind the innovations provide a rare glimpse into the thinking and personalities of the engineers involved with the development of the AGC, and the descriptions of the interactions between NASA and the engineers at MIT offer some unique insights into the dynamics of how space missions really happen.

Computer technology has changed dramatically since the days of Apollo, and that change is due in large part to the Apollo program. Comparing the photographs of the prototype systems for the AGC to the package that actually flew on the spacecraft gives new meaning to word "amazing". The software that ran on the AGC was also a stunning feat in and of itself. The AGC utilized real-time multi-tasking before it was even a commonly accepted approach in the software industry (and it's now a standard feature of every cell phone and MP3 player).

The text is well-written and easily accessible, with enough details to keep the more technical minded reader interested. As someone who stood on a hill behind his house in Florida as a kid and watched the Saturn V rockets disappear over the horizon, stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the moon, and then later ended up working in the aerospace industry, this book has a special meaning for me. I highly recommend it.

Good
Are you kidding with the price of this thing ? I mean are you kidding?

An excellent book
As other reviewers have mentioned, this is an excellent book full of interesting detail, photos and diagrams. Anyone interested in the Apollo project is likely to enjoy this book.

While not inexpensive, I felt the price was reasonable for a specialty book; in addition to my copy I purchased one as a gift.

Although this book focuses specifically on the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, as a byproduct it provides a fascinating look at the development of computers at a time when the industry was experiencing rapid growth and development as the integrated circuit - now both ubiquitous and unremarkable - was just making its revolutionary debut as what would become the basis for virtually all modern electronic devices.

My only disappointment with this book is that it deals exclusively with hardware, software and - in general - things. One suspects that there is a parallel story to be told about the people, the personalities, the conflicts and the emotions that went with this project.

Great book for geeks!
As a high-school then college student during the development of the Apollo missions, I found the book very interesting.In 1967, our senior class math teacher took us to Bowling Green State University to learn how to program BGSU's new IBM 360 computer using Fortran and punch cards.I designed a small computer the year before that could count from 0 to 7 as a science fair project, so the details on how they selected components for the Apollo computers was very interesting.During my senior year in high school, using my new knowledge of computers, I designed and built a computer that computed poker odds using just diode arrays, so the construction techniques used to develop the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) was even more interesting.I watched Apollo 11 land on the moon on my 20th birthday on July 20th, 1969, so I have always had an interest in that great program.It depicts admirably what this country can do when challenged.

Fantastic!
A great read. I couldn't put it down. Technical enough to engage the scientifically savvy. Humorous and personal too. A must for those interested in how we became surrounded by computers in our daily lives. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a practical guide to building Kalman filters that shows how the filtering equations can be applied to real-life problems. Numerous examples are presented in detail, showing the many ways in which Kalman filters can be designed. Computer code written in FORTRAN, MATLAB[registered], and True BASIC accompanies all of the examples so that the interested reader can verify concepts and explore issues beyond the scope of the text. In certain instances, the authors intentionally introduce mistakes to the initial filter designs to show the reader what happens when the filter is not working properly. The text carefully sets up a problem before the Kalman filter is actually formulated, to give the reader an intuitive feel for the problem being addressed. Because real problems are seldom presented as differential equations, and usually do not have unique solutions, the authors illustrate several different filtering approaches. Readers will gain experience in software and performance tradeoffs for determining the best filtering approach. The material that has been added to this edition is in response to questions and feedback from readers. The third edition has three new chapters on unusual topics related to Kalman filtering and other filtering techniques based on the method of least squares. Chapter 17 presents a type of filter known as the fixed or finite memory filter, which only remembers a finite number of measurements from the past. Chapter 18 shows how the chain rule from calculus can be used for filter initialization or to avoid filtering altogether. A realistic three-dimensional GPS example is used to illustrate the chain-rule method for filter initialization. Finally, Chapter 19 shows how a bank of linear sine-wave Kalman filters, each one tuned to a different sine-wave frequency, can be used to estimate the actual frequency of noisy sinusoidal measurements and obtain estimates of the states of the sine wave when the measurement noise is low. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A well written and practical textbook
I purchased this book primarily to gain some basic understanding of kalman filtering, but have found the book so interesting and engaging that I have taken the time to rewrite the code to pascal and run the examples etc, as presented in the book. Being a systems engineer by education, but not by profession, the approach used in the book allowed me to apply some of my previous but unused training very efficiently.

The practical approach, along with just enough notation to be rigorous, makes for a thoughtful read, but is still easily understood. When combined with the examples, the alternative approaches presented and the code it achieves exactly what the authors state as their objectives.

information
Although I am disappointed in the second reviewers comments he is wrong concerning the code. Complete code is presented in the text and is on CD for all of the examples. Readers can now make up their own mind before purchasing the text. If you go to the Google Book Search and type in Zarchan you will be able to read the entire text. I suggest people who have previously been terrified of Kalman filters and want to learn how to build one, read the Introduction and possibly the second Chapter to see if the text meets their needs and is in accordance with their individual learning styles. I know that many readers have found the text useful.

A great book
This book builds up the concepts needed to understand Kalman filtering from very basic ideas like least squares, and tries to keep things grounded in practical examples.It is, as advertised, the practical approach, totally unpretentious, and clearly written.

The commenter referred to as the 'second commenter' in the author's comment has apparently withdrawn his comment and is not me. ... Read more

Product Description
This book unifies all aspects of flight dynamics for the efficient development of aerospace vehicle simulations. Now in its second edition, its purpose is still to provide the reader with a complete set of tools to build, program, and execute simulations. Unlike other books, it uses tensors for modeling flight dynamics in a form invariant under coordinate transformations. For implementation, the tensors are converted into matrices, resulting in compact computer code. The reader can pick FORTRAN templates of missiles, aircraft, or hypersonic vehicles from the complimentary "CADAC" CD-ROM to jump-start a particular application, and plot the results of CADAC Studio. It is the only textbook that combines the theory of modeling with hands-on examples of three-, five-, and six-DoF simulations. This new and enlarged edition also serves as anchor for a self-tutoring, three-part course of aerospace simulations in C++, available from AIAA. Amply illustrated with 318 figures and 44 examples, the text can be used for advanced undergraduate and graduate instruction or for self-study. Seventy eight problems and nine projects amplify the topics and develop the material further.Qualified instructors can obtain a complimentary solution manual from AIAA. This second edition contains two new appendices. The original Appendix C, which reviewed state-of-the-art FORTRAN simulations, has been replaced by the description of three self-study CD-ROMs of aerospace simulations in C++. These CDs broaden the applications of this book by spanning from simple three degrees of freedom cruise missiles to high fidelity missiles, aircraft, and hypersonic vehicles. The new Appendix D lays the theoretical foundation of tensor flight dynamics. It contains the proofs of the rotational time derivative and the Euler transformation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Spilled Milk

Well this book has so much information that it could have been "the" book on flight dynamics and simulation.Unfortunately it went all wrong in my opinion.To begin with the theoretical part in first five or so section using tensors becomes a long tedious exercise in symbol manipulation.There should be a balance between mathematical elegance and the intuitively obvious!One can use the high machinery of functional calculus to give simple and elegant proofs of results and properties in matrix theory, but that would deprive the student of actually learning about matrices.Unfortunately the tonsorial approach turns the theoretical aspects of dynamics in moving frame into some cook recipe.
As any beginning student of calculus will tell you that they first learn the definitions of derivatives and integral in terms of basic concepts involving limits etc, and then formulas are used.Authors approach in this text book is exactly the opposite.

As far simulation and modeling part of the book, it is very comprehensive and
Author does well to start form 3DOF and guides the reader gradually to 6DOF models. As pointed out by few othersFortran is somewhat outdated andnot taught any longer. This could turn off few users.

Title is misleading.The book is mostly theory.
This book is mostly THEORY with less emphasis on application. The title should be "Theory of Modeling and Simulation of Aerospace Vehicle Dynamics".It does do a great job on the theory but simulations are software and require code and there is very little coverage of this in this book.The simulation code the book uses is Fortran.I don't even believe they teach Fortran at the universities anymore.

2010.03.01 Update
I originally bought this book assuming it was about simulation when in truth it is about modeling.The modeling part is about ALOT of different topics besides simulations of moving bodies.I have several aerospace books I use as references but most of them are very lacking in application.I have used this book several times regarding guidance and navigation subjects which other books have not covered or covered very poorly.The kicker is these subjects are important but they arenot even listed in the table of contents (but are in the index)!Peter does a very good job in this book but the table of contents are top level.This book covers many topics well but one wouldn't know it by the table of contents.

Here we have a modern Flight Dynamics treatise!
Comments on
"Modeling and Simulation of Aerospace Vehicle Dynamics"

Here we have a modern Flight Dynamics treatise!

Dr. Zipfel presents his book as an account of Modeling and Simulation techniques; in fact, it is much more: it is, as we just said, a modern, exhaustive and deep Flight Dynamics treatise.

In the first six chapters, where Dr. Zipfel presents the theoretical foundations of Flight Dynamics, he introduces the reader to the very powerful, elegant and concise Tensorial formulation (which is uncommon except in very few, specialized reports), which is elevated to an axiomatic level ("from tensor modeling to matrix coding", in his words). This formulation, when applied to the Rational Mechanics and Modeling chapters(2 to 6), should allow the undergraduate (or recently graduated) student to see and enjoy the power and beauty underlying in these old physics branch. These chapters could configure an excellent text as part of a Mechanical or Aeronautical Engineering graduated level Rational Mechanics course (which we will intend to verify in the following course at National University of Córdoba, Argentina).

The second part of the book (which we should define as the "Aerospace" part), is devoted to Aerospace System simulation itself: beginning (in Chapter 7) with a blow of fresh air on our old, loved Perturbation Equations introducing the reader in the specificities of the Flight Dynamics (i.e. Aerodynamic forces and moments modeling), Dr. Zipfel leads with the most awkward part of Dynamics Analysis: The modeling of complete vehicles (regardless they are planes, missiles, launch vehicles or spacecrafts), in which the range of subsystems, and links between them, involved may feel sick to the beginner (and, sometimes, to experienced engineers). Again, beginning with basics (3-D.O.F. modeling), the reader is conveyed in a simultaneously strict an pleasant way to the deeps of full 6-D.O.F. simulations, including items such as Control, Guidance and Navigation Systems, Seekers, full non-linear aerodynamics and stochastic effects. The specialized engineer will find these Chapters as primary reference for any concrete modeling task.
The primary tool used by Dr. Zipfel in his task is CADAC software (Computer Aided Design of Aerospace Concepts), which we see as one of the bests Aerospace Simulation open codes available worldwide. Its modularity, documentation and completeness allow the reader to quickly understanding, as well as to perform modifications to suit it to specific needs. This software is highly valuable both for students and specialized engineers needed to develop simulation tools.

In brief, we found Modeling and Simulation of Aerospace Vehicle Dynamics a great book for both engineering students and specialized engineers; everybody will enjoy reading it, because its elegant and concise notation and its deep and rigorous mathematical treatment, as well as the powerful tools that Dr. Zipfel puts in the engineers' hands. This book should be on the desk of any simulation engineer as a primary reference in his day-to-day job.

Eduardo Zapico Professor, Aer. Eng., National University of Córdoba, Argentina, Scientific manager, Nostromo Consulting, Córdoba

Marcelo Martinez Manager Aerodynamics ,Nostromo onsulting ,Cordoba -Argentina ... Read more

Product Description
"The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History" describes the evolution from piston engines to gas turbines by the engineers who created those engines. Included are hundreds of archival photographs, as well as over a dozen tables listing specifications and applications. The story starts with the founding of the company in the 1920s to provide reliable air-cooled piston engines to the military and to help create coast-to-coast commercial flight service. Pratt & Whitney quickly dominated commercial and military flight in the 1930s, ultimately providing half the horsepower of American engines during World War II. Jack Connors explains how Pratt & Whitney came from behind the competition in developing gas turbines after the war with the debut of the J57, which powered the B-52 in 1952 and later the Air Force Century Series fighters (F-100, F-101, and F-102) and the Navy A-3D, F-4D, and F-8 airplanes. Also covered is the development of the J58, which powered the Mach 3+ YF-12 and SR-71 aircraft and subsequent military engines; the F100 in the F-15 and F-16; the F119 in the F-22; and, the F135 in the F-35 series.Pratt & Whitney's contribution to the luxury commercial jet era travel is also detailed, with its JT3, JT3D, JT4, JT8D, JT9D, PW2000, PW4000, and PW6000 in Boeing, Douglas, and Airbus aircraft. This history of Pratt & Whitney's role in the evolution of aircraft engines from 1925 to the present day offers young engineers a wealth of insights about design, development, marketing, and product support for commercial and military customers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Engines of Pratt & Whitney: A Technical History
There is a soft spot in my heart for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. In the mid-1960's when I embarked on my engineering education the aerospace industry was booming. We were going to the moon! Four years later there was a recession on. Apollo was winding down, Southeast Asia was hot, and job offers were scarce. I went to work for P&WA, assigned to design small bits of turbine engines.

The job lasted ten months; then they allowed as how I could keep coming to work but they couldn't afford to keep paying me. I moved on, soon ending up in the shipbuilding business.

But what I'd seen of engineering as it was practiced at Pratt & Whitney, I'd liked. They were an organization committed to giving the customer a product that was first class in every respect, and they applied leading-edge technology to do it. I learned a few good lessons in my short tenure there.

Now, Jack Connors' new book has provided a context for my experience. Mr. Connors joined P&WA in 1948 as the piston engine era was drawing to a close and he retired as a Vice President in Engineering, in 1983. After retirement, he and a couple of colleagues invested thousands of hours in organizing and indexing the company's engineering archives. That effort provided the source material for this book.

Much of the book is concerned with what Mr. Connors regards as P&WA's four "defining moments":

* The founding of the company (1925)
* The WWII effort (1939-1945)
* The transition to turbine power (1947-1958)
* Winning the F100 engine program (1968-)

The author uses many first hand accounts to bring these "moments" (several of which stretched over years) to life. We learn how and why Frederick Rentschler started the company and how George Mead and Andy Willgoos inspired both the design brilliance of the great radial engines and the incredible industrial effort that saw P&WA engines supply 50% of the installed horsepower in the WWII aircraft fleet.

We learn, in a really suspenseful sequence, how the company started the gas turbine era desperately far behind GE and Westinghouse, and how Luke Hobbs and Perry Pratt led the engineering effort that produced the J-57 engine for Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress - an engine that represented both a "bet the company" program and a quantum advance in turbojet performance.

The J-57 in its commercial guise (as the JT-3) went on to power both the Boeing 707 and the DC-8 (and the rest, as they say, is history).

And, in the usual manner of technical evolution, the J-57 turbojet led to the TF-33 turbofan (power for the C-141 Starlifter), which was scaled down and provided with an afterburner to produce the TF-30 that occupied my time for a year. And the TF-30 (power for, among others, the F-111 and the F-14 Tomcat) was the parent of the F-100 that went into the F-15 and F-16 and led to other advanced engine programs.

While one must respect the author's conclusions, I'd have proposed the development of the JT-9D high-bypass turbofan during the same years that the F100 was evolving, as a much more significant milestone. The JT-9D powered the first Boeing 747's that arguably revolutionized commercial air travel, and its technical "DNA" can be seen in every large airliner turbofan to this day.

Mr. Connors' book provides only an overview (certainly an interesting one) of the piston engine era. It was before his watch, so to speak, and he paints with a broad brush and suggests other references to fill in the details. But his technical history of the first 35 years of the turbine era at Pratt & Whitney is masterful, and for this era, this will be an essential reference. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

Product Description
Today aircraft combat survivability is now an established design discipline for U.S. military aircraft. More importantly survivability is now an essential part of the U.S. Department of Defense acquisition process. Furthermore, improving public health, safety, and survivability is now woven throughout the civil and commercial sector. From infant car seats to the design of aircraft cargo bay structures that can withstand internal bomb blasts, the government is taking the lead in establishing survivability standards.

Approximately 10,000 copies of the first edition were sold in five printings. It remains the only book of its kind and is required reading for anyone involved in design of air combat vehicles.

The extensively illustrated second edition of the textbook presents the fundamentals of the aircraft combat survivability design discipline as defined by the DoD military standards and acquisition processes. It provides the history of, the concepts for, the assessment methodology, and the design technology for combat survivability analysis and design of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, UAVs, and missiles. Each chapter specifies learning objectives; stresses important points; and includes notes, references, bibliography, and questions.

The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability: Analysis and Design on CD-ROM is included with your purchase of the hardcover. The CD-ROM gives you the portability and searchability that you need in your busy environment. It is considerably smaller and lighter than the textbook so it is available when you are away from the office or traveling. It can also be searched to quickly locate a particular word or phrase.

Professors! To receive your solutions manual, e-mail your request and full address to custserv@aiaa.org. ... Read more

Product Description
"Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control, Second Edition" continues to provide a solid foundation in dynamic modeling, analysis, and control of space vehicles featuring detailed sections covering the fundamentals of controlling orbital, attitude, and structural motions of space vehicles. A new Part 5 is a collection of advanced spacecraft control problems and their practical solutions obtained by applying the fundamental principles and techniques emphasized throughout the book.The textbook highlights a range of orbital maneuvering and control problems: orbital transfer, rendezvous, and halo orbit determination and control. Rotational maneuvering and attitude control problems of space vehicles under the influence of reaction jet firings, internal energy dissipation, or momentum transfer via reaction wheels and control moment gyros are treated in detail. It also covers the analysis and design of attitude control systems in the presence of structural flexibility and/or propellant sloshing.New topics include control moment gyros for agile imaging satellites, solar sail dynamics and control, solar sail missions for asteroid deflection, and attitude and orbit control of a large geostationary solar power satellite.This text requires a thorough knowledge of vector and matrix algebra, calculus, ordinary differential equations, engineering mechanics, and linear system dynamics and control. The first two chapters provide a summary of such necessary background material. Since some problems may require the use of software for the analysis, control design, and numerical simulation, readers should have access to computational software (i.e., MATLAB[registered]) on a personal computer. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A lot of math, hard to get a conceptual understanding
I'm a graduate student beginning in Attitude Determination and Control, of a small Cubesat, using magnetic torque coils.

I had ordered a set of books to educate myself on the topic. This book is not helping me identify the problem and the thought process towards the solution as I hoped.

I imagine I will find it useful later when I am looking for the math to quantify the problem, but for now I dont think I can "learn" from only it.

The best in its area
This is a rather complete presentation of the knowledge of controls and dynamics needed to design, specify, and analyze spacecraft control sytems.No navigation or guidance is covered.Of course no reference to same is made in the title.The book is primarily a composition of basic control background including modern topics like H-infinity.The H-infinity control discussion is the most understandable out there and its limitations are spelled out clearly, perhaps for the first time.The structural dynamics and controls sections are outstanding with some novelty.Interleaving is not unique to this book, however.Bryson covers it in Control of Spacecraft and Aircraft.Quite frankly, at this point in time most of the spacecraft controller design methodologies are handbook in nature and what is most needed is a good background in the basics that extends into the actual design domain enough to be useful.Bong Wie has provided that in this book for controller design to a greater extend than any other written thus far.

A great addition to the literature
Bong Wie's "Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control" is, by far, one of the best books ever published in the AIAA Education Series. It packs a lot ofinfo on a multitude of subjects which don't usually come togetherin a single book. The mathematical preliminaries and the sections ondynamics and control of flexible structures are particularly well done.(This is perhaps the first time a textbook covers the interlacing propertyof poles & zeros of certain transfer functions, particularly thoseassociated with flexible structures.) In addition, the inclusion of the"H-infinity" topic the way the author did it is very good since,in general, books do not feature the subject in such a concise, objective,useful way. The same is true of the section on halo orbits, as well. Bestof all, Wie's having included Kharitonov's theorem comes as a blessing,since the issue is rarely seen in non-European texts.

Unfortunately, inits present form (first edition), the book is not without its flaws. Thealphabetical index should indicate explicitly where one can find subjectslike the aforementioned interlacing property, as well as bang-bang-typecontrols. Also, a couple of topics have been omitted altogether: yo-yodevices (possibly deemed too simple) and the more advanced issuespertaining to the extremely important time-varying nonlinear systems (e.g.:time-varying eigenvalues). This is arguably OK, as this last subject,requiring a lot of preliminary material on operator theory, might beconsidered too advanced for a non-systems book, especially one in theEducation Series.

In closing, one must acknowledge Bong Wie for bringingthis more-than-welcome addition to the controls literature. ... Read more

Product Description
The basics of aerothermodynamics are treated in this book with special regard to the fact that outer surfaces of hypersonic vehicles primarily are radiation cooled. The implications of this fact are different for different vehicle classes. In any case the properties of both attached viscous and separated flows are of importance in this regard. After a discussion of flight environment and transport phenomena in general, the most important aerothermodynamic phenomena are treated. Thermal surface effects are particularly considered, taking into account both radiation cooling and/or active cooling, for example of inner surfaces. Finally the simulation means of aerothermodynamics are discussed. Computational methods and their modelling problems as well as the problems of ground facility and flight simulation, including the hot experimental technique, are treated. ... Read more

Product Description
This timely volume brings together the world’s most highly regarded scientists in the field of solid rocket propulsion. Thirty-nine papers present indepth coverage on a wide range of topics including: advanced materials and nontraditional formulations; the chemical aspects of organic and inorganic components in relation to decomposition mechanisms, kinetics, combustion, and modeling; safety issues, hazards and explosive characteristics; and experimental and computational interior ballistics research, including chemical information and the physics of the complex flowfield. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Solid propellant chemistry, combustion & motor interior ballistics
This volume was a gap on my research shelf that was waiting to be filled.
Totally comprehensive,it will proove without question of unique value in my work and further study. ... Read more

Product Description
Pratt & Whitney engines helped to win World War II by powering much of the U.S. fighter fleet as well as many British planes. They also powered 98 percent of all transport planes used by the military during that war.Since then, they've powered such record-breaking aircraft as the Boeing B-50, the first airplane to fly nonstop around the globe, and the Air Force F-100 Super Sabre becoming the first aircraft to break the speed of sound in horizontal flight. In July 1976, Pratt & Whitney J58 engines powered an SR-71 spy plane to a world altitude record of 84,069 feet (25,624 kilometers) and a second Blackbird to a world speed record of 2,193 miles per hour (3,529 kilometers per hour).These dependable engines are also responsible for powering the first generation of commercial jet transports bringing the world to our front doors - the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8. Pratt & Whitney's JT8D, powering the Boeing 727 and 737, as well as the Douglas DC-9, has totaled more than half a billion hours of service with more than 350 operators since its commercial service began. In fact, they've been used in most of the world's civil, commercial and military aircraft.Over the years, Pratt & Whitney has patented hundreds of innovations, from heat-resistant coatings to aerodynamic blades - technologies that make air travel more cost effective, comfortable and dependable. Today Pratt and Whitney engines provide power for everything from land based power stations, business jets and helicopters to large commercial aircraft, fifth generation fighters, and manned & unmanned space vehicles."The story of Pratt & Whitney" offers broad insight into the history of aviation itself and the people who built the industry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Airplane engine history primer
For anyone who loves airplanehistory, this book fills in a lot of missing pieces. The name? Think Eli Witney, inventor of the cotton gin. Where did the aircraft carrier idea come from? Think post-World War I treaty limiting naval battleship tonnage, and the U.S. was over the limit, so some genius in the Navy said lets convert a half-built battleship into a carrier. How easy is it to build an engine that lasts and lasts? Then how easy is it to build a modern jet engine? Answer: not easy. The book starts off great, gets a little long at the end, but fun to read and complimented with many fine pictures. W.H.N. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
The book provides an up-to-date guide to the techniques and applications of inertial navigation for use by both practicing engineers and post-graduate students. The book satisfies a need for a book on the subject of inertial navigation that provides both an introduction to the techniques involved as well as information on modern technological developments, combined with a more rigorous mathematical treatment for the reader wishing to explore the subject in greater depth. The text describes the basic concepts of inertial navigation with particular emphasis on modern strapdown system technology, providing detailed information on system mechanizations, instrumentation and computational aspects, design analysis, and applications of such systems. In particular, the text provides up-to-date information on inertial sensor technology and inertial navigation system computational techniques, bringing together the broad experience of the authors within a single volume. The text contains both descriptive passages and also mathematical details where appropriate.MEMS is the focus of much research and development activity at the present time; this technology offers rugged and reliable sensors with a performance capability that lends itself to integration with satellite navigation systems. This second edition has been updated in a number of areas to reflect ongoing developments in the field of inertial navigation technology. In addition to a number of refinements covering sensor technology, geodesy, and error modeling, the major additions to the original text are new chapters on MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) technology and system applications. A broad range of applications are addressed in a second new chapter, covering ship's inertial navigation, tactical missiles, well bore surveying systems, automobiles, and sightline stabilization systems, to name but a few. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Lots of good reference material
This book has the most comprehensive breakdown and analysis of the principles and modeling of accelerometer and gyro technologies I've seen in a book yet, though there are already some very good books on stable platform products.There's also a wealth of information on various coordinate systems used in the vicinity of Earth.While an entire chapter is devoted to MEMS, it would seem that the mechanization material (as well as alignment) is geared towards higher-end devices, in that many MEMS units I've encountered cannot readily identify any component of Earth's rotation, making much of the math superfluous for my application.There is a chapter near the end that deals briefly with aiding, but don't count on that being enough.A number of real-world periodic motions, both short-term (coning, sculling) and long-term (Schuler, Foucault), are identified, and the references to literature at the end of each section are invaluable in digging deeper.Kalman filtering is relegated to an appendix, but that is fine, as this book is significantly more oriented to applications; pick up a copy of Gelb if you need an intro to estimation.

Excellent Inertial Book
Strapdown Inertial Nav. is an excellent book for those who would like to understand the technology or learn how to process inertial sensor data.

A solid introduction to Strapdown INS
A good introduction from the ground up.Concepts were easily conveyed to the reader.I'm much more comfortable with strapdown systems after reading this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Intake Aerodynamics, Second Edition presents new computational advancements and discoveries in intake aerodynamics. A companion volume to Practical Intake Aerodynamic Design, this important text considers the problem of airflow, both internal and external to air intake, as applied to civil and military aircraft. It covers the aerodynamics of subsonic and supersonic intakes in real flows, maintaining a progression through the transonic range. Also considered is the joint perspective of the airframe designer and the propulsion specialist in practical cases.

Readers will gain insight into the fluid mechanics behind the deceleration of air from free stream to engine velocity, and an understanding of air compression and external drag in extensively revised chapters reflecting progress in the field. More than 300 drawings and diagrams help to illustrate the points defined throughout the book.

Copublished with Blackwell Science Ltd ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive and explanatory
One of the most extensive volume devoted to the subject.The book is very rigorous, the mathematical level is well set out, being simple, advanced enough and limited to analysis aspects only. Quite impressive to me is thewide use of sketches, graphes and diagrams; they give a clear frame ofphysical phenomenons occurring in "live articles". But the bestof it is the description of solutionsactually adopted in aircraftdesigns,to make the intake a workable "machine". ... Read more

Product Description
This case study provides insight into the F-16 FBW FCS design, including discussion of the F-16 design philosophy, the implementation of the flight control system, and unique flight control system functional features. ... Read more

Product Description
This text provides an introduction to gas turbine engines and jet propulsion for aerospace or mechanical engineers. The text is divided into four parts: introduction to aircraft propulsion; basic concepts and one-dimensional/gas dynamics; parametric (design point) and performance (off-design) analysis of air breathing propulsion systems; and analysis and design of major gas turbine engine components (fans, compressors, turbines, inlets, nozzles, main burners, and afterburners).Design concepts are introduced early (aircraft performance in introductory chapter) and integrated throughout. Written with extensive student input on the design of the book, the book builds upon definitions and gradually develops the thermodynamics, gas dynamics, and gas turbine engine principles. The book contains over 100 worked examples and numerous homework problems so concepts are applied after they are introduced. Over 600 illustrations and pictures show basic concepts, trends, and design examples.Seven computer programs accompany the text, which allow for rapid calculation of trends, “what if” questions, conceptual design, homework problems, and homework verification. The software runs in the Windows operating system on PC-compatible systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Outstanding Textbook
The book introduces the theory and operating principles of gas turbine engines.The fundamental concepts of the turbine engines design are spelled out. The primary systems and accessories of the gas turbine engine are also discussed.

The book provides an excellent foundation in gas turbine engines and jet propulsion theory for aerospace or mechanical engineers. It is presented at the graduate and senior undergraduate level and provides a comprehensive coverage of all the fundamentals in a reader-friendly manner that also works beautifully as a professional reference.

The book is well written and easy to follow with clear explanations and numerous illustrations and pictures to reinforce the basic concepts, trends, and design examples. The book also has several worked examples and many homework problems all which help the reader to grasp and apply the concepts. This is one of the best books available on the market on gas turbine engines and is therefore highly recommended.

Best I have seen
I'm a senior aerospace engineering student and am the propulsion lead for my aircraft design team.This book is very readable, understandable, and applicable to what I'm doing.I've looked through several other books and this one (as well as Mattingly's Aircraft Engine Design) has the most useful information and has been very helpful.

complete turbine book
This has got to be the most complete turbine book I have ever seen.Containing pretty much everything on cycle analysis, it even provides a good review of thermodynamics and compressible flow.Itdoes, however, look to be a little difficult to teach from with eqautions and graphs flying about, but to the knowledged user it will serve as a great and complete reference.(There are some errors in the text you might want to correct found on the book's webpage.)

BestTextbook on Engine Performance
This is the best textbook written on the modeling and performance prediction of gas turbine engines. A systematic method is used to model a variety of engines from the basic turbojet to the advanced afterburning turbofan used in modern fighters. Performance predictions include the effect of engine controls - a unique feature. Turbomachinery design includes structural considerations. This book is a great textbook for junior/senior level courses in aerospace/mechanical engineering. It is being used for a basic course in gas turbine engine and a followup course in engine component design...

A Very Good Book With Lots of Useful Information
I bought the book "Elements of Gas Turbine Propulsion" in Augustof 1999 and I still read it almost everyday. It is a very interesting book,but it has a seriousflaw in that there are so many errors, it appearsthat the editor(s) were asleep or out to lunch. It was a greatdisserviceto the author, as I think he was shortchanged by the publisher. Being aformer member of the USAF, myself I feel that his work was more meticulousthan this. Perhaps the publisher was in such a hurry to hit the presses atall costs, that this is the result. This seems to be the trend in recentyears. I believe that one of the major networks did and expose regardingmajor publishing house oversights in this area.

Jim ... Read more

Product Description
There have been many new developments in the ten years since the first edition of "Radar and Laser Cross Section Engineering" was published. Stealth technology is now an important consideration in the design of all types of platforms. The second edition includes a more extensive introduction that covers the important aspects of stealth technology and the unique tradeoffs involved in stealth design. Prediction, reduction, and measurement of electromagnetic scattering from complex three-dimensional targets remains the primary emphasis of this text, developed by the author from courses taught at the Naval Postgraduate School. New topics on computational methods like the finite element method and the finite integration technique are covered, as well as new areas in the application of radar absorbing material and artificial metamaterials. Matlab [registered] software, homework problems, and a solution manual (available to instructors) supplement the text. Written as an instructional text, this book is recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.It is also a good reference book for engineers in industry who want an introduction to the physics and mathematics of radar cross section in order to better understand the interdisciplinary aspects of stealth. Matlab is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. ... Read more

Product Description
The companion RDS-STUDENT aircraft design software is a valuable complement to the text. RDS-STUDENT incorporates the design and analysis methods of the book in menu-driven, easy-to-use modules. Like the book, the program is metric-friendly and all inputs and outputs can be interchanged between metric and fps units with the press of a button. An extensive user’s manual is provided with the software, along with the complete data files used for the Lightweight Supercruise Fighter design example in the back of the book. RDS-Student has been extensively revised for the 4th edition of the book.RDS-STUDENT runs on any PC-compatible system and runs on any version of Windows or DOS. ... Read more

Product Description
As aircraft flight speeds have increased and orbital missionshave mandated complex space structures, the need for a deeperunderstanding of aerospace thermal structural behavior has grown. Thepurpose of this book is to study the basic problems of complex computeranalyses as they relate to this behavior. With in-depth presentations,this book sets out to allow readers to develop an understanding of thebasic physical behavior of thermal structures, gain an appreciation forthe role of classical engineering thermal and stress analyses, and applycomputational methods to provide insight into realistic behavior. ... Read more

Product Description
This book introduces the military roles expected of aircraft types and describes the avionics systems required to fulfill these roles. These range from technology and architectures through to navigations systems, sensors, computing architectures, and the human-machine interface. It enables students to put together combinations of systems in order to perform specific military roles. A complementary volume to the authors’ previous title Civil Avionics Systems, this book covers a wide range of military aircraft roles and systems applications. It offers clear and concise system descriptions; includes case studies and examples from real life, current projects; and features numerous illustrations and photographs.
It is a valuable resource for students of aerospace engineering as well as practitioners in the field of aerospace who wish to extend their knowledge. ... Read more