It's a perfect book for those who wants to maximize their knowledges in Aerodynamics, and enter in an Airline.

Currently we are using this book as a textbook for my Aerodynamics class. Unfortunately for me, the book itself is difficult to understand unless you have a great imagination, piloting experience, several tools at your disposal (visual aids), or a great teacher. While our teacher is knowledgeable, he doesn't have the kind of skill required to break it down. I, unfortunately, have only five hours in the air and am not a piloting major. I had to go online several times and to a dictionary several times to learn what the terms "flare", "yoke", "attitude", and so on meant. I am not conditioned in any way, shape, or form for this material and so I have a hard time understanding it. Needless to say, the piloting students in my class have a harder time understanding the equations, but they understand the text since they "go up" all the time. I, however, need to draw on my five hours and on several textbooks, online aids, plotting tools, and online wind tunnels. I also found need to buy a simplified version of this book as a guide. While the integrity of the book itself is there, it requires that some experience be had on the reader's side in order to understand it to its full extent. I also think that perhaps the manual itself should also include a glossary, but it's rather old and was created ages ago at the behest of the government. I recommend it, once again, if you have some experience or if you have time to read and re-read some portions (assuming you have little to no experience in flight) since it will help you in grasping some of the material better. Also, chapters two and chapters three should be switched around. To make any sense of two, you have to read three first.

Here's my very simple take on this book: if you operate (fly) airplanes of any kind, you need to have this book in your easy-to-get-to library. Period.

My only negative comment is that the current "FAA reprint version" (How did they get involved? This is not a typical "How to" FAA kind of publications!)of the original NAVOPS manual is of very poor reproduction quality. The photos and artwork look "muddy" compared to an original copy of the manual. The text is not crisp, while some of the photographs of wind tunnel demonstrations are simply not understandable unless you know already what you're looking at.

Although it was written in 1959 by Hugh Hurt of USC under contract to the U. S. Navy (and thus its copyright came into the public domain), it remains as relavant and informative today as it was when the ink was drying on the first press run! Incidentally, this same book also had a brief life as an Air Force manual, ATCM 51-3, Aerodynamics for Pilots, used by Air Training Command as a reference text in the pilot training program during the 1960s. The USAF version simply replaced the motivational photos of Navy aircraft with USAF models, but the manual was otherwise identical. It was eventually replaced by a much less rigorous edition, about one third the size and scope, that was, by comparison, almost useless. Seems that people found it too challenging, especially all that math -- a point I'll address below.

Some of the material will shed "AH-HAH!" kind of light on day-to-day routine things; other topics will inform how you ought to approach the extraordinary, whether it's a sudden weather change, or an in-flight emergency.

Not every pilot will find all chapters equally interesting. Also, experience has shown that the majority of pilots who are interested in the details of aerodynamics seem to gravitate towards the performance aspects of aircraft flight: Performance is generally easier to understand, but the real details of how the aircraft's inherent properties as seen by the pilot are only revealed in the sections on stability and control. Don't slight those chapters.

A suggestion about approach: even though you may have never flow a jet-powered aircraft and have little prospect of doing so, don't think that it's a waste of time to learn about the details of jet aircraft aerodynamics (as distinct from propeller aircraft). Why? Because it's easier to learn first about how a jet-thrust aircraft behaves without the complications such as torque, brake horsepower, etc., introduced by getting thrust from an "air screw." Once you're clear about these basics, then you will be able to understand a little easier how various performance and stability and control issues are affected by the propeller/recip combination.

Thus, the book is clearly oriented toward the operator/pilot and the things he has direct control over, or things that will affect his decisions or decision-making process, or choices of technique of how to operate his airplane. (You might be surprised to discover that a lot of techniques that are around were developed as easy-to-use compromises, needed simply because people didn't know the underlying details -- not because they're naturally the best way to do something.)

The only persistent objection to this text over the years has concerned its routine use of math, consisting basically of simple algebraic expressions, with some trig thrown in occasionally when trying to analyze things going on at some angle, such as bank or climb angles. There is also frequent use of simple graphs that show important relationships between two variables, say, angle of attack and the wing's lift coefficient.

Well, it's an accurate observation, but it's not a fair criticism -- and it's certainly not a valid reason to not use and study the text.

The book presents the derived equations, the results, obtained from other texts, whereby the pilot can see the physical terms that affect some aerodynamic terms (e.g., lift). In doing so, you also see two essential things: first, how the terms are related to one another; secondly, how changing each of them, alone or in groups, affects the airplane's overall behavior. You see, for instance, what's really going on when you operate from a high elevation airport in the summer vs. winter, how the change in density altitude affects lift, drag, engine performance, etc. Without the results-based math that this book uses, you're really guessing or relying on what other people pass along as rules of thumb.

Can you fly an airplane without knowing how to interpret the meaning of an equation? Of course. People do it every day. But: can you fully understand what you're doing without knowing the full scope of information that the equations are conveying? No, not really. Besides, it's a real kick to be able to visualize an equation, say of maneuvering flight, and translate that mental picture into a series of control inputs that make the aircraft do exactly what you want it to do, as you bring that mental picture into reality.

For example, once you learn to think, to visualize, in terms of knowing that an airplane's turn radius is proportional to the square of its true airspeed, you know a great deal more than the person who simply knows that as the speed increases, the turn gets bigger. If you understand the relationship between the wing's lift coefficient vs. angle of attack, you'll also have a deeper understanding of the most effective techniques for flying final approach at a given airspeed and how you might safely modify your approach for unusual conditions, such as weather or being confronted with a shorter-than-expected runway.

If you don't learn the language that conveys the details of Why the airplane behaves as it does, you're always going to feel a little uncomfortable, uneasy perhaps, just as you would if you were at a party and everyone was speaking some foreign language. This is especially true when you encounter a situation that the normal procedures -- the How of it -- were not intended to address. If you don't have this underlying understanding, you'll find yourself in a position of having to play "test pilot" -- without the benefit of the training and experience that usually goes with that title!

The last point to make concerns the book's age: it is more than 40 years old now. The short answer is that airplanes still only talk Newton and Bernoulli, etc., and those guys never get too old. The advent of the "electric airplane" hasn't changed the basic aerodynamic issues the pilot must understand. Rather, electronics largely just alters the economics of flying and has also enhanced safety considerably. Technologies such as anti-skid brakes or 3-axis autopilots have been around for over 50 years, working exactly according to the same principles then as they do today. What has changed is how much it costs to get the capability. In 1950, anti-skid braking on a military aircraft might add $50,000 to the cost of the aircraft. Today, the same system functionality is installed in cars, no less, for under $25.00! The variables (the equations) that describe stopping distance have not changed, however. For private pilots especially, e.g., the single-engine Cessna variety, the airplanes generally available to that market are much older than the book is. Even if they do have an expensive Glass Cockpit, from a performance and handling qualities standpoint a 172 is still a 60-year old airplane, no matter what the instrument panel looks like or its date of assembly.

A final comment: In my opinion, anyone who aspires to a high level of aeronautical proficiency that ultimately has safety as a major objective, anyone who wants to truly master his or her craft, needs to be able to study and learn at the level of detail and rigor presented in Hurt's technical masterpiece. It's a true classic.

Here's my very simple take on this book: if you operate (fly) airplanes of any kind, you need to have this book in your easy-to-get-to library. Period.

My only negative comment is that the current "FAA reprint version" (How did they get involved? This is not a typical "How to" FAA kind of publications!)of the original NAVOPS manual is of very poor reproduction quality. The photos and artwork look "muddy" compared to an original copy of the manual. The text is not crisp, while some of the photographs of wind tunnel demonstrations are simply not understandable unless you know already what you're looking at.

Although it was written in 1959 by Hugh Hurt of USC under contract to the U. S. Navy (and thus its copyright came into the public domain), it remains as relavant and informative today as it was when the ink was drying on the first press run! Incidentally, this same book also had a brief life as an Air Force manual, ATCM 51-3, Aerodynamics for Pilots, used by Air Training Command as a reference text in the pilot training program during the 1960s. The USAF version simply replaced the motivational photos of Navy aircraft with USAF models, but the manual was otherwise identical. It was eventually replaced by a much less rigorous edition, about one third the size and scope, that was, by comparison, almost useless. Seems that people found it too challenging, especially all that math -- a point I'll address below.

Some of the material will shed "AH-HAH!" kind of light on day-to-day routine things; other topics will inform how you ought to approach the extraordinary, whether it's a sudden weather change, or an in-flight emergency.

Not every pilot will find all chapters equally interesting. Also, experience has shown that the majority of pilots who are interested in the details of aerodynamics seem to gravitate towards the performance aspects of aircraft flight: Performance is generally easier to understand, but the real details of how the aircraft's inherent properties as seen by the pilot are only revealed in the sections on stability and control. Don't slight those chapters.

A suggestion about approach: even though you may have never flow a jet-powered aircraft and have little prospect of doing so, don't think that it's a waste of time to learn about the details of jet aircraft aerodynamics (as distinct from propeller aircraft). Why? Because it's easier to learn first about how a jet-thrust aircraft behaves without the complications such as torque, brake horsepower, etc., introduced by getting thrust from an "air screw." Once you're clear about these basics, then you will be able to understand a little easier how various performance and stability and control issues are affected by the propeller/recip combination.

Thus, the book is clearly oriented toward the operator/pilot and the things he has direct control over, or things that will affect his decisions or decision-making process, or choices of technique of how to operate his airplane. (You might be surprised to discover that a lot of techniques that are around were developed as easy-to-use compromises, needed simply because people didn't know the underlying details -- not because they're naturally the best way to do something.)

The only persistent objection to this text over the years has concerned its routine use of math, consisting basically of simple algebraic expressions, with some trig thrown in occasionally when trying to analyze things going on at some angle, such as bank or climb angles. There is also frequent use of simple graphs that show important relationships between two variables, say, angle of attack and the wing's lift coefficient.

Well, it's an accurate observation, but it's not a fair criticism -- and it's certainly not a valid reason to not use and study the text.

The book presents the derived equations, the results, obtained from other texts, whereby the pilot can see the physical terms that affect some aerodynamic terms (e.g., lift). In doing so, you also see two essential things: first, how the terms are related to one another; secondly, how changing each of them, alone or in groups, affects the airplane's overall behavior. You see, for instance, what's really going on when you operate from a high elevation airport in the summer vs. winter, how the change in density altitude affects lift, drag, engine performance, etc. Without the results-based math that this book uses, you're really guessing or relying on what other people pass along as rules of thumb.

Can you fly an airplane without knowing how to interpret the meaning of an equation? Of course. People do it every day. But: can you fully understand what you're doing without knowing the full scope of information that the equations are conveying? No, not really. Besides, it's a real kick to be able to visualize an equation, say of maneuvering flight, and translate that mental picture into a series of control inputs that make the aircraft do exactly what you want it to do, as you bring that mental picture into reality.

For example, once you learn to think, to visualize, in terms of knowing that an airplane's turn radius is proportional to the square of its true airspeed, you know a great deal more than the person who simply knows that as the speed increases, the turn gets bigger. If you understand the relationship between the wing's lift coefficient vs. angle of attack, you'll also have a deeper understanding of the most effective techniques for flying final approach at a given airspeed and how you might safely modify your approach for unusual conditions, such as weather or being confronted with a shorter-than-expected runway.

If you don't learn the language that conveys the details of Why the airplane behaves as it does, you're always going to feel a little uncomfortable, uneasy perhaps, just as you would if you were at a party and everyone was speaking some foreign language. This is especially true when you encounter a situation that the normal procedures -- the How of it -- were not intended to address. If you don't have this underlying understanding, you'll find yourself in a position of having to play "test pilot" -- without the benefit of the training and experience that usually goes with that title!

The last point to make concerns the book's age: it is more than 40 years old now. The short answer is that airplanes still only talk Newton and Bernoulli, etc., and those guys never get too old. The advent of the "electric airplane" hasn't changed the basic aerodynamic issues the pilot must understand. Rather, electronics largely just alters the economics of flying and has also enhanced safety considerably. Technologies such as anti-skid brakes or 3-axis autopilots have been around for over 50 years, working exactly according to the same principles then as they do today. What has changed is how much it costs to get the capability. In 1950, anti-skid braking on a military aircraft might add $50,000 to the cost of the aircraft. Today, the same system functionality is installed in cars, no less, for under $25.00! The variables (the equations) that describe stopping distance have not changed, however. For private pilots especially, e.g., the single-engine Cessna variety, the airplanes generally available to that market are much older than the book is. Even if they do have an expensive Glass Cockpit, from a performance and handling qualities standpoint a 172 is still a 60-year old airplane, no matter what the instrument panel looks like or its date of assembly.

A final comment: In my opinion, anyone who aspires to a high level of aeronautical proficiency that ultimately has safety as a major objective, anyone who wants to truly master his or her craft, needs to be able to study and learn at the level of detail and rigor presented in Hurt's technical masterpiece. It's a true classic.

Here's my very simple take on this book: if you operate (fly) airplanes of any kind, you need to have this book in your easy-to-get-to library. Period.

Although it was written in 1959 by H. H. Hurt of USC, it remains as relavant and informative today as it was when the ink was drying on the first press run! Some of the material will shed "AH-HAH!" kind of light on day-to-day routine things; other topics will inform how you ought to approach the extraordinary, whether it's a sudden weather change, or an in-flight emergency. Not every pilot will find all chapters equally interesting. Also, experience has shown that the majority of pilots who are interested in the details of aerodynamics seem to gravitate towards the performance aspects of aircraft flight: Performance is generally easier to understand, but the real details of how the aircraft's inherent properties are seen by the pilot are only revealed in the sections on stability and control. Don't slight those chapters! One word of advise: even though you may have never flow a jet aircraft and have little prospect of doing so, I nevertheless recommend that you first study the jet-powered aircraft's performance. Why? Because it's simpler and more intuitive than the propeller/recip combination. Jet engines produce propulsive force, thrust, directly, given in pounds (or the metric equivalent) and thus the analysis doesn't get complicated by rotating, twisted airfoils (propellers), torque and brake horsepower, etc. After you're comfortable with understanding the aerodynamics of the propulsive force (thrust), you can then turn your attention to how it's produced using reciprocating engines and "air screws", as the Brits call them, and how the performance equations are modified accordingly.

Incidentally, my perspective in writing is as a 20+ year Air Force pilot and AF Test Pilot School graduate. So, yes, I am familiar with more "advanced" texts that provide, for instance, the theoretical development of the equations that are asserted as "givens" in this text. Moreover, if your interest is in how airplanes are designed and built, you'll need other references, as is the case to learn about the applications of flying, whether, for example, they be instrument flight or fighter tactics.


My only negative comment is that the current "FAA reprint version" of the original NAVOPS manual is of very poor reproduction quality. The photos and artwork look "muddy" compared to an original copy of the manual. The text is not crisp.

Incidentally, this same book also had a brief life as an Air Force manual, ATCM 51-3, Aerodynamics for Pilots, used by Air Training Command as a reference text in the pilot training program during the 1960s. The USAF version simply replaced the motivational photos of Navy aircraft with USAF models, but the manual was otherwise identical. It was eventually replaced by a much less rigorous edition, about one third the size and scope, that was, by comparison, almost useless. Seems that people found it too challenging, especially all that math -- a point I'll address below.

Thus, the book is clearly oriented toward the operator/pilot and the things he has direct control over, or things that will affect his decisions or decision-making process, or choices of technique of how to operate his airplane. (You might be surprised to discover that a lot of techniques that are around were developed as easy-to-use compromises, needed simply because people didn't know the underlying details -- not because they're naturally the best way to do something.)

The only persistent objection to this text over the years has concerned its routine use of math, consisting basically of simple algebraic expressions, with some trig thrown in occasionally when trying to analyze things going on at some angle, such as bank or climb angles.

Well, it's an accurate observation, but it's not a fair criticism -- and it's certainly not a valid reason to not use and study the text. As I've told students: the airplane knows about Newton and his friends Bernoulli, Pascal, etc., -- forces, gravity, pressure, density and those kinds of things. If you can learn to interact with it in those terms, you'll have a long love affair with the airplane. The airplane, unlike your wife or girlfriend, is profoundly indifferent to your feelings, or your mood, or your most fervent desire of having a great flight! It responds only to the state of the various equations that describe its operation. This means that we have to learn the language -- or at least a small subset of it -- that the airplane speaks. That language happens to be mathematics. Fortunately, learning how it speaks in the form of basic equations is just not that difficult or intricate. The hard stuff has already been done by the real math types in deriving the equations. If you're going to convince yourself that you'll never be able to understand the terms of the lift equation and how the affect your operation of the aircraft, you're selling yourself and your aeronautical education short. Besides, it's a real kick to be able to visualize an equation, say of maneuvering flight, and translate that mental picture into a series of control inputs that make the aircraft do exactly what you want it to do.

Can you fly an airplane without knowing equations? Yes! Can you fully understand what you're doing when you do so without knowing equations? No.

Once you learn to think, for instance, in terms of knowing that an airplane's turn radius is proportional to the square of its true airspeed, you know a great deal. Moreover, you know a great deal more than the person who simply knows that as the speed increases, the turn gets bigger! If you don't learn the language, however, you're always going to feel uncomfortable, uneasy, just as you would if you were at a party and everyone was speaking some foreign language. "Uneasy" and "uncomfortable" as a pilot of an airplane are not compatible with longevity as a pilot!

The book presents the derived equations, obtained from other books and more advanced math, whereby the pilot can see the physical terms that affect some aerodynamic terms (e.g., lift). In doing so, you also see two essential things: first, how the terms are related to one another; secondly, how changing each of them, alone or in groups, affects the airplane's overall behavior. You see, for instance, what's really going on when you operate from a high elevation airport in the summer vs. winter, how the change in density altitude affects lift, drag, engine performance, etc. Without the results-based math that this book uses, you're really guessing or relying on what other people pass along as rules of thumb.

It's almost funny that the FAA should be identified with this reprint volume. The FAA's whole approach over the past 40 years, driven primarily by cost, has been: Don't spend time learning the Why; just learn the procedures of How. Then go practice them in a simulator a few times. Oddly, the more complex the aircraft, the less import the Why becomes and the more How dominates. How else could you get a type rating in an airplane that you've never flown?

This volume, on the other hand, is all about Why, and to the extent that it even discusses the How of a thing, it does so only to let you know the background factors that drive the modification of various techniques (How-to) for doing something (e.g., flying final approach) that vary among airplanes.

The last point to make concerns the book's age: it is more than 40 years old now. The short answer is that airplanes still only talk Newton and Bernoulli, etc., and those guys never get too old. The advent of the "electric airplane" hasn't changed the basic aerodynamic issues the pilot must understand. Rather, electronics largely just alters the economics of flying and has also enhanced safety considerably. Technologies such as anti-skid brakes or 3-axis autopilots have been around for over 50 years, working exactly according to the same principles then as they do today. What has changed is how much it costs to get the capability. In 1950, anti-skid braking on a military aircraft might add $50,000 to the cost of the aircraft. Today, the same system functionality is installed in cars, no less, for less than $25.00 The variables (the equations) that describe stopping distance have not changed, however. For private pilots especially, viz., the single-engine Cessna variety, the airplanes generally available to that market are much older than the book is. Even if they do have an expensive Glass Cockpit, from a performance and handling qualities standpoint a 172 is still a 60-year old airplane, no matter what the instrument panel looks like or its date of assembly.

It's true, too, that the book doesn't give a lot of attention to high speed aerodynamics and the major breakthroughs that came in the 1960s as a result of programs such as the SR-71, the X-15 and the various NASA lifting body projects that were the forerunners of the Space Shuttle. So, if you're going to be flying above Mach 2 or so, you'll need supplemental material.

A final comment: In my opinion, anyone who aspires to a high level of aeronautical proficiency that ultimately has safety as a major objective; anyone who wants to truly master his or her craft, needs to be able to study and learn at the level of detail and rigor presented in Hurt's technical masterpiece. It's a true classic.

This is an excellent manual for those interested in all aspects of aerodynamics. Originally printed for U.S. naval aviators, it covers aerodynamics from pistons to jets, fixed wing and rotary wing. The manual includes information on Basic Aerodynamics, Airplane Performance, High Speed Aerodynamics, Stability and Control, Operating Strength Limitations, and Application of Aerodynamics to Specific Problems of Flying.

The manual is written at the university level and has graphs and formulae liberally sprinkled throughout the book. However, this is not an impediment and I have used this manual for many years and find it excellent for basic information.

This is an excellent manual for those interested in all aspects of aerodynamics. Originally printed for U.S. naval aviators, it covers aerodynamics from pistons to jets, fixed wing and rotary wing. The manual includes information on Basic Aerodynamics, Airplane Performance, High Speed Aerodynamics, Stability and Control, Operating Strength Limitations, and Application of Aerodynamics to Specific Problems of Flying.

The manual is written at the university level and has graphs and formulae liberally sprinkled throughout the book. However, this is not an impediment and I have used this manual for many years and find it excellent for basic information.

Way too many pilots are making it through "professional" flight schools, a few years of instructing, into the commuters and finally into the cockpit of large jets with very little rigorous study of aerodynamics. With the emphasis on conservative training, electronic gadgets and such something is shortchanged and that is fundamentals of aerodynamics. This book is the answer as a text, instructor's aide and desk reference.

The product review infers that this is an FAA publication. Thankfully it is not. Rather it is the text that has lead generations of young Naval Aviation officers from diverse backgrounds into the cockpits of jet fighters operating off of carriers and many other forms of aviation. The preface and title page clearly indicate that it was written by Hugh Hurt (University of Southern California); Hurt notes "The purpose of this textbook is to present the elements of applied aerodynamics and aeronautical engineering which relate directly to the problem of flying operations." In this case the client was the Naval Air Systems Command and the book's mission was to provide the aeronautical knowledge required to transition from a liberal arts major to the deck of a carrier.

When I first bought this book I had been flying for several decades. My regret was that I had not read it earlier. Students who use the book in aviation courses will have a significant advantage in their training. It is a great resource book on all things having to do with how airplanes ( and helos) fly and sometimes do not fly.

Considering that the feedstock of Navy aviation is a diverse group with backgrounds from aero to poly sci and that the demands placed on the graduates are huge, it is not surprising that this book was produced. It does a fantastic job of discussing concepts and then providing the math (most of it far beyond my ability) and graphs. However, the lack of a background in calculus does not prevent the reader from gaining priceless insights into the physics and practice of flying.

Yes the photographs are dated and of planes long sent to the boneyard but the physics of flying have not changed since the earth cooled. In fact, with the current crop of flight instructors so affixed to their digital displays, most civilian students will need to study aerodynamics on their own. Want to understand why Mooney aircraft have so many bent props on the 231/252 series, just spend a few minutes wiht the applied problems in aero and some of the basics.

For me the goal was not to understand every topic covered, but to add to my knowledge base, especially as it relates to the type of flying I normally do, and to have an excellent reference. With that goal this book is great. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The author's success is evident in many ways but perhaps most in the fact that after more than four decades it is still the text of choice in many rigorous academic and professional training programs. If I had to pick two books to give a student pilot it would be Richard Bach's Stranger To The Ground and this book. I have also recommended this book to several of my instructor friends as an aid to understanding what they are teaching.

The product review infers that this is an FAA publication. Thankfully it is not. Rather it is the text that has lead generations of young Naval Aviation officers from diverse backgrounds into the cockpits of jet fighters operating off of carriers and many other forms of aviation. The preface and title page clearly indicate that it was written by Hugh Hurt (University of Southern California); Hurt notes "The purpose of this textbook is to present the elements of applied aerodynamics and aeronautical engineering which relate directly to the problem of flying operations." In this case the client was the Naval Air Systems Command and the book's mission was to provide the aeronautical knowledge required to transition from a liberal arts major to the deck of a carrier.

When I first bought this book I had been flying for several decades. My regret was that I had not read it earlier. Students who use the book in aviation courses will have a significant advantage in their training. It is a great resource book on all things having to do with how airplanes ( and helos) fly and sometimes do not fly.

Considering that the feedstock of Navy aviation is a diverse group with backgrounds from aero to poly sci and that the demands placed on the graduates are huge, it is not surprising that this book was produced. It does a fantastic job of discussing concepts and then providing the math (most of it far beyond my ability) and graphs. However, the lack of a background in calculus does not prevent the reader from gaining priceless insights into the physics and practice of flying.

Yes the photographs are dated and of planes long sent to the boneyard but the physics of flying have not changed.

For me the goal was not to understand every topic covered but to add to my knowledge base and to have an excellent reference. With that goal this book is great. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The author's success is evident in many ways but perhaps most in the fact that after more than four decades it is still the text of choice in many rigorous academic and professional training programs. If I had to pick two books to give a student pilot it would be Richard Bach's Stranger To The Ground and this book. I have also recommended this book to several of my instructor friends as an aid to understanding what they are teaching.

When I first bought this book I had been flying for several decades. My regret was that I had not read it earlier and the students who use the book in aviation courses have a significant advantage in their training.

Considering that the feedstock of Navy aviation is a diverse group with backgrounds from aero to poly sci and that the demands placed on the graduates are huge, it is not surprising that this book was produced. It does a fantastic job of discussing concepts and then providing the math (most of it far beyond my ability) and graphs.

Yes the photographs are dated and of planes long sent to the boneyard but the physics of flying have not changed.

For me the goal was not to understand every topic covered but to add to my knowledge base and to have an excellent reference. With that goal this book is great. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

UPDATE - The product review infers that this is an FAA publication. However, the preface and title page clearly indicate that it was written by Hugh Hurt (University of Southern California); Hurt notes "The purpose of this textbook is to present the elements of applied aerodynamics and aeronautical engineering which relate directly to the problem of flying operations." In this case the client was the Naval Air Systems Command and the book's mission was to provide the aeronautical knowledge required to transition from a liberal arts major to the deck of a carrier.

The author's success is evident in many ways but perhaps most in the fact that after more than four decades it is still the text of choice in many rigorous academic and professional training programs.

This is an excellent, well priced book. I think it is especially useful for engineers who are not aeronautical engineers. It is also very useful as a companion book to a calculus-based aerodynamics book. The mathematics in this book are not difficult--which is nice since it allows the reader to concentrate on the basic concepts of flight and aerodynamics. My one point deduction comes only because more problem solving would be appreciated--but there are plenty of other texts for that.

This is an excellent, well priced book. I think it is especially useful for engineers who are not aeronautical engineers. It is also very useful as a companion book to a calculus-based aerodynamics book. The mathematics in this book are not difficult--which is nice since it allows the reader to concentrate on the basic concepts of flight and aerodynamics. My one point deduction comes only because more problem solving would be appreciated--but there are plenty of other texts for that.

I've just bought a special book to navy's pilot which is about how to understand aerodynamics for naval aviators. The service is good and it took not so much time as I thought it would take and the book is new in great quality paper, that's why I rate this item to 5 stars.

Thankyou very much Amazon.com
It was a pleasure buy this book with you.

Edilson.

I've just bought a special book to navy's pilot which is about how to understand aerodynamics for naval aviators. The service is good and it took not so much time as I thought it would take and the book is new in great quality paper, that's why I rate this item to 5 stars.

Thankyou very much Amazon.com
It was a pleasure buy this book with you.

Edilson.

I first read this book in community college as a student pilot, then later at San Jose State University studying aerodynamics. It's the only book I've found that effectivly communicates the complexities of aerodynamics without becoming overly scientific or simplistic. The age of the book shows in it's graphics, but the line drawings used to illustrate the important points I find to be less distracting and more informative than the more complex graphics found in later works. Overall, this is an excellent addition to the library of anyone seriously interested in the science of flight.

Althought written in 1959, this book covers many subjects related to aeronautical knowledge which are still in use today. High speed aerodynamics & aircraft performance are also covered. You dont have to be a naval aviatior for this book.

I used this for Intro to Aerodynamics at Embry-Riddle and it served me well, though we didn't go over all the mateial in the book.

This book is aimed at student Navy pilots and teaches enough to understand aerodynamics and how it will effect pilots. It touches on high speed aerodynamics but doesn't get terribly in-depth.

As another said, the graphics are a bit dated, but the text starts out fairly basic and stays in what I would call a moderate zone. There is math involved to understand and use the book, but not a lot of higher-leve math like some other books. I remember using very little calculus, but trig and algebra are musts.

I purchased this book on a recommendation from my mentor. Although I have not have much experience in the field, I found most concepts simple to understand and follow. The book is slightly old, thus lacking some of the useful CAD generated diagrams. The pictures are slightly blurry but overall, it is the text that counts.

My father used an early version of this when he went to test pilot school, and it is still very useful to introduce aerodynamics to an audience that has had little exposure to the topic. And yet, it does manage to cover the key theoretical concepts as well.