Introduction to Aircraft Design (Cambridge Aerospace Series),   ISBN:9780521657228

Customer Rating: 

Aircraft design from a Cranfield University perspective ONLY. Siginificant aircraft and designs are not discussed. Don't waste your money.

Better books: Fundamentals of Aircraft Design by Leland Nicolai, Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach by Daniel P. Raymer or, for a multi-volume approach, try Aircraft Design by Jan Roskam.

Customer Rating: 

I agree with one of the other reviewers, that this book is rather brief in its content, but if one takes it for he introduction book that it is, then one understands why there is little detailed info.

The appendices are pretty robust though, and have some good tables with lots of hard-to-find info. There are appendices with formulas, scientific data, formula, conversionss, and there are tables with aircraft parameters and statisitics.

The author is obviously a Brit and uses examples from Cranfield's past research as many examples used in the book.

This book was required for Embry-Riddle's ASCI-603 Aircraft & Spacecraft Development.

If you are serious about a book on aircraft design, and you really want to know what you'll need to know, or are serious about the field, save your money and get Dan Raymer's Aircraft Development: A Conceptual Approach (4th ed.). It's more expensive, but fatter than a Bible and practically a Bible in itself for the field of aircraft design.

Customer Rating: 

This book was very loosely written. It touches on the subjects and leaves you hanging. If you ever wanted to cite anything from this book, you'd be hard pressed to find anything useful. Unfortunately, it was a part of my curriculum to use this book for my Masters.

Customer Rating: 

This book is a very general view from a very British perspective. I don't think it belongs in Embry-Riddle's graduate programs because it does not meet the needs of experienced professionals. As an undergraduate overview of the systems design process, it is good. However, the author does not even touch helicopters, seaplanes, or lighter-than-air-technology. So, the book would be more aptly named "Introduction to Airplane Design."

Some of his information on armament systems is grossly inaccurate. Furthermore, the systems design process section does not reflect the current state of the art in the discipline of Systems Engineering. I expect improvement in the next edition and hope the author makes more of an effort to talk to engineers on the other side of the pond.

Customer Rating: 

I consider this book to be a rough draft for a much larger book to come (I hope). The author just skims lightly through vast numbers of subjects, so that anyone who knows anything about airplanes will learn nothing new. Yet it isn't written on a basic enough level to have much to offer someone who knows nothing.

Disappointing.