Henry Carter Hull

How did two world-class pilots coax their glider to a new altitude record? Focus on this feat as a lesson in the key principles of winged flight - including angle of attack, lift, drag, thrust, and weight. Also explore "the miracle on the Hudson," when airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger glided his jet to an emergency water landing. Close your first lesson with an investigation of the control inputs: yaw, roll, and pitch.

Roll up your sleeves and learn how to design an aircraft, using an approach that has hardly changed in a century of building new airplanes. Start out by determining the weight values, maximum lift coefficient, wing loading, and thrust-to-weight ratio. Next lay out a configuration. Finally, iterate, making modifications and adjustments to perfect your vehicle.

"The book describes computational science as a field related to the design, execution and use of arithmetical models to evaluate and solve scientific complications. Generally, the word refers to the application of computers to simulate or numerically analyze scientific systems or processes. This book claims that because of the complexity of mathematics, massive amounts of calculations involved, or both of them, computational science enables people...

Balloons were the first vehicles to fly and Archimedes' principle is the secret of their lift-carrying power. Use the ideal gas law to determine air density and the hydrostatic equation to chart air pressure versus altitude. Then apply these concepts to lighter-than-air craft to learn how the Breitling Orbiter balloon was able to circumnavigate the globe non-stop.

Taught by Professor James Gregory of The Ohio State University, with commentary by Smithsonian curators and examples from the National Air and Space Museum, this series is a treasure trove for all who wonder where lift comes from, how a pilot flies a plane, what air traffic controllers do, and many other things about flight, including how rockets and orbits work.

Venture beyond Earth to the realm of the planets. Interplanetary trajectories require exquisite timing so that the target planet is in exactly the right spot when the spacecraft arrives, often by a Hohmann transfer ellipse. Consider two fuel-saving approaches to these marathon journeys - gravity assists and ion propulsion.

Planes take off with only the fuel required for the planned trip - plus a safety margin. Since there are no filling stations in the sky, the calculations must be precise, taking account of the plane's performance characteristics, the weather, and other factors. Learn the equations that pilots use and hear a riveting story about what happens when they get it wrong.

Automated flight systems are increasingly used in human-piloted aircraft, where their nearly fail-safe expertise creates some unusual problems. Also look at remotely piloted vehicles, also called drones. Pioneered by the military, these are taking to the sky for a variety of practical civilian missions, including recreational uses.

During and just after World War II, the quest for ever faster fighter planes reached an apparent natural barrier - the speed of sound. On approaching this limit, aircraft became unstable and uncontrollable. Discover how a new approach to aircraft design solved the problem of compressibility and shock waves in this transonic region, paving the way for supersonic flight.

Focus on parasitic drag, a byproduct of moving an aircraft through the air, which has no practical benefit and is therefore like a parasite. Zero in on two aspects of parasitic drag: skin friction and pressure. Observe how these phenomena arise and how they can be reduced, which is a key goal of aircraft design. Learn about laminar flow as well as golf ball design.