Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics (Mit Press)

Ever since writing the XFOIL program for MIT project Daedalus, Mark Drela has rightly gained the reputation as one of the cornerstones of aerodynamics for aircraft design. "Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics" captures his latest efforts to move from 2D vortex panel method to 3D vortex lattice method in the AVL code. By considering aircraft performance during various manouvres this approach is absolutely relevant to aircraft optimisation - even in a world where freeware CFD codes such as Open Foam make serious aerodynamic investigation available to projects on a limited budget. It should be considered an advanced text on the subject, well suited to those with a reasonable mathematical grasp. It is concise, well planned, and full of coloured diagrams to explain the ideas clearly.If you are serious about understanding aircraft aerodynamics then this is the book for you. It does not go into the depth required to write your own code, but AVL is available on the MIT website. If your needs go beyond this then I would read this book and "Low Speed Aerodynamics" by Joseph Katz & Allen Plotkin. All in all this book sits very well with "Theory of Wing Sections" by Abbott & Doenhoff, "Fundamentals of Aerodynamics" by John D. Anderson Jr, and "Aerodynamics" by Houghton & Carpenter.So whether you are a keen glider pilot preparing for a master degree in aeronautics, or you just have a craving to understand things at a deeper level, then I can highly recommend this book. Actually both descriptions fit me...

Book arrived quickly and in excellent condition.

If you want to understand how to analyse flight vehicles / understand aircraft and the compromises they represent, get this book and work through it.

Outstanding book that thoroughly covers the basics and more. Well worth the investment andshould be on every aerodynamicist's bookshelf. Excellent reference. Well done.

I'm a student in MIT's MOOC in Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics. The book is a good tool to succeed in this course.Mark Drela is a genius and a very good teacher. This book worth the money and the time spent on it.

This is a terrific book, concise and containing a wealth of material.

I find this book understandable, with very nice figures and the topics are very well explained. It is an excellent book.

Excellent sent of reorganized class notes & lectures. It's very strong on the basics. Good fundamental starting point for all.

Excellently presented. A must read for aeronautical engineers.

The print was nice albeit one or two pages had superimposition of different texts.Nice color.