RIP
"Design of the Aeroplane" was, I blushingly admit, a school prize for me, remains pretty well-thumbed, and probably structured my aero engineering thinking in much the same way as Birch and Bramson for aviation. Examples...
- The real world of regulation
- The possibility for radical shapes and ideas, even in a conservative, corporate environment (and in this last year I've had three aircraft to look at, all highly unconventional in approach and exciting in application)
- The importance of having an overview of the whole design: or at least, a clear understanding of how your bit and your activity fit in, right back to first principles
- The idea that there are still openings and niches for people who can look at the whole problem
I suspect that book also got a friend of mine through their degree course: when it all got a bit hard and abstruse, "Stinton" would show how the tricky maths would actually relate to the shaping of metal.
Hopefully he's up there trimming a triplane canard delta, or fooling with the complete solution for Navier-Stokes or something...
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