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Aerospace Textbook Recommendations?

1001001

1001001

Well Known Member
Hey all you Aerospace and Mechanical engineers out there!

I'm looking for your recommendations for engineering textbooks/handbooks that you have found particularly enlightening or useful. I'm a Chemical engineer, and while our curriculum was heavy on thermo and chemistry, we don't get much into structures and statics and dynamics, so I don't have a lot of knowledge or information in those areas, just what was necessary to pass the FE exam way back when.

Can you recommend your best/most practical textbooks and handbooks in the following areas:

Structures (particularly aircraft and spacecraft)
Aerodynamics
Engines (particularly Otto and Diesel cycles and their relatives)


I'd really appreciate it and I bet others here would too!
 
Aerospace Textbook Recommendations

Aircraft Design:
General Aviation Aircraft Design
Snorri Gudmundsson
Butterworth Heinemann
2014
1024 pages
This is THE best book on small aircraft design. Not structures as such, but sizing of wings, airfoil selection, sizing of empennage, performance, stability.

Structures:
Aircraft Structures
David Peery
McGraw Hill
1950
566 pages
This is the classic on structures. There are later and updated editions, some of which have not gotten good reviews.

Practical Stress Analysis for Design Engineers
Jean-Claude Flabel
Lake City Publishing Company
2005
686 pages
This is more of a detail design book than Peery.

Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures
Bruhn
Jacobs Publishing
1973
Lots of pages, but numbered by section
Another classic. Extremely detailed and comprehensive

Design of Light Aircraft
Richard Hiscocks
Self Published, but I think the rights have been taken up by another publisher
1995
281 pages
Excellent book for light aircraft. Dick Hiscocks was one of the principal designers of the DeHavilland Beaver and later Vice President of Design for DeHavilland up to about the Dash 8. Later was the consulting engineer and co-designer for Murphy Aircraft.

Aerodynamics
Fundamentals of Aerodynamics
John D. Anderson
McGraw Hill
1984
771 pages

Aircraft Engines
Aircraft Engine Design
Liston
McGraw Hill
1942
485 pages
This is an actual aircraft piston engine design book from the high point of development of the aircraft piston engine during WW II. Very practical treatment of all components of the piston engine from a time before computers.

Sky Ranch Engineering Manual
Schwaner
Sacremento Sky Ranch
290 pages
Covers some theory, but mostly a manual for pilots and mechanics about operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of air cooled piston engines

Some of the above books are out of print, others have had a change in publishers. For out of print, one of the best sources on the internet is abebooks.com.
 
Aerodynamics:
Aircraft Performance Stability and Control, by Perkins and Hage.

Theory of Flight, by Von Mises.

Engineering Aerodynamics, by Diehl.

Structural Analysis:
Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, by Bruhn.

Formulas for Stress and Strain, by Roark and Young.

MIL-HDBK-5 or MMPDS, both on line. (Materials data).

ANC-5 (Earlier version of MIL-HDBK-5, has different data).

Design of Wood Aircraft Structures, ANC-18.

Astronautic Structures Manual, Volume 1, NASA TM-X-73305, NASA MSFC.

Astronautic Structures Manual, Volume 2, NASA TM-X-73306, NASA MSFC.

Astronautic Structures Manual, Volume 3, NASA TM-X-73307, NASA MSFC.

Composite Aircraft Design, by Hollmann.

Vibration Analysis for Electronic Equipment, by Steinberg.

Aircraft Vibration and Flutter, by Scanlan and Rosenbaum.

Note:
In some cases these were made available in several editions. I've observed that some of the later editions were often oriented towards computer programming theory more than to the simple engineer. This gives an engineering approach that, while handy for writing a program or understanding the mathematical interrelationships behind the theory, is awkward for actually solving problems. As a result, I prefer the middle editions.

Dave
 
Thanks very much everyone! I hope this becomes a good reference "card catalog" for people with the same questions.
 
Thanks a bunch

Seeing some of those textbooks listed is going to bring back the recurring nightmare of tomorrow's final exam and I've never gone to class. :eek:

Ga. Tech B.A.E. 1979
 
Engine Texts

"Internal Combustion Engines and Air Pollution" by Obert

"The Internal-Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice" Vol I & II by Taylor

"Combustion Engine Processes" by Lichty

"Internal Combustion Engines Applied Thermosciences" By Ferguson


They are listed in order of general use and purchase. The last two get into much more detail on heat transfer, heat release, combustion equations etc. If you have all these, there are more to post. If you want to design an engine, that is a special request.

I will have to get a look at the Aircraft Engine book above.
 
Fluid Dynamics

A couple of practical fluid dynamic pubs that I have found to be a huge help are these:

"Flow of Fluids through valves and fittings" Technical Paper #410 by The Crane Company - 1957. link to preview of pdf

"Applied Fluid Dynamics Handbook" by Blevins - a Krieger Publication

Even after BS and MS in mechanical engineering, these two have provided massive practical knowledge. I did not find them to become dated over the decades. Mathematica, and MatLab notwithstanding.
 
KatanaPilot said:
Seeing some of those textbooks listed is going to bring back the recurring nightmare of tomorrow's final exam and I've never gone to class. :eek:

Ga. Tech B.A.E. 1979
Click to expand...

I *hate* that dream and I still have it occasionally, going on 17 years after my BS.
 
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