Preliminary Reading for Aeronautical Engineering

[Rupert S]

As many of you probably don't know, I'm planning on studying either Aeronautical or Mechanical Engineering (although ultimately specialising in Aeronautical/Airspace). I was wondering if anyone knew of any good preliminary reading on the subject? Perhaps something on aerofoil design or even a specific aircraft (although if it was this, it would have to be fairly detailed).
We're talking along the lines of something to talk about at an Oxford interview.
Your help would be very much appreciated!

[nosefirsteverytime]

What I would recommend is reading the technical articles in Flyer, Pilot, Today's Pilot etc, especially John Farley's ones. Decent starting point.

As for books, I don't know. I learned the basics of flight from, beleive it or not, a fighter sim manual (US Navy Fighters. 'twas this game that got me onto planes in the first place!). The only books I've seen on the subject have been v. expensive textbooks.

hope you find more

NFET
2nd year mech(transferring to aero)

[c-bert]

'Introduction to Aircraft Design' by Prof John Fielding (Cranfield Uni), is an excellent 'my first design' book. Written in plain (scuse pun) English it is both interesting and informative.

I can thoroughly recommend it.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Firstly unless they've changed lately, I don't think that Oxford offer aeronautical Engineering - if you're an Oxbridge snob I believe that Cambridge do, but if planning an aerospace career you'd be better off at one of the big-name aerospace engineering universities such as Imperial, Glasgow, Southampton, Sheffield...

Secondly, I'd suggest you try these:-

"The new science of strong materials", by JE Gordon

"Flight without formulae", by AC Kermode.


You could also do worse than try the technical textbook used for PPL training - that will give you an overview of a lot of subjects from a point that you can discuss. There are several such books, personally I prefer Jeremy Pratt's as the most readable.

G

[Rupert S]

I think at this stage, the PPL book is a little simplistic. I've applied to Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical engineering at imperial just so you know :ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

At this stage you need a general understanding of the breadth of how aircraft work for your interviews - I'd still recommend including a PPL book within your reading. Yes, these books are simplistic - but that's not necessarily a bad thing; it's very easy to become a bit of a snob about levels of information - a really good understanding of the basic level information will be of more use to you now than a shallow understanding of more advanced subjects that they'll be teaching you later anyhow.

Imperial, BTW, are very heavily into the mathematical aspects of engineering - so you do want to be 100% on your A-level maths syllabus when you go for interview.

Incidentally, I became a chartered mechanical engineer on the strength of an Aero-Eng degree, and I've known a few people who have become chartered aeronautical using mechanical degrees - yes they are different, but I wouldn't get too hung up on the differences and their career relevance - go for the one that excites you most. Either will be incredibly hard work for 3 or 4 years, and either will be extremely rewarding in both the short and long term.

Best of luck,

G

[FlyFreeWbe]

My pennies worth..
Don't get me wrong, I love Aerospace. But if your first year is anything like mine, which I don't know, you'll quickly want reading material that'll remind you why exactly you're doing Aero in the first place. My first year included stuff like electrics, materials, LOTS of maths, CAD and other indirectly relevant material. I mean, I wanted to do stuff directly related to aircraft straight away! Whatever happens, stick with it. 2nd year gets better.

Interestingly, I have a m8 at imperial, smart bloke, got all A's alevel, and he's findin it a bit hard. He loves it though! Good luck, maybe you'll get to meet him.

FFW

@ Genghis, did you do a MEng to become chartered or work in industry to gain experience for it?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I got my CEng before they brought in the MEng requirement, so my BEng(Hons) was enough. The requirement for an MEng came in with SARTOR II I think, sometime in the mid 1990s. But, you needed another 4 years in industry after your degree then, and still do now. I have to confess I'm not totally convinced by the need for an MEng - if the Eng.C have in their wisdom decided to impose an extra year's requirement, I'd rather do a more directed MSc either full or part time after you've graduated and started earning - but that's not the current trend I realise.


FlyFreeWbe is absolutely right about the first year of the degree, it's deadly - death by maths, stressing, theoretical aerodyamics, and (my personal least favourite) thermodynamics. As you get a bit further on through your degree you start to realise why that was necessary - it's all of the building blocks upon which the interesting stuff is built. The second year gets more interesting, and the third (+ fourth) is downright fascinating - as has been most of my real work since.

I recall a couple of nights a week that I used to be up to 3am in the 1st year just keeping my maths in particular up to speed - and that was after two good A-levels in it and 1½ days per week at the local technical college during my year-out.

I used to escape about once a month to the local aircraft museum for half a day, apart from being a nice museum it helped me remember why the hell I was putting up with all this death by higher mathematics (although pretty much all of it, except some of the more complex calculus, I've subsequently used - so it is necessary).

G

N.B. I can see why they do it, but what sort of disturbed mind was it thought of doing calculus to complex formulae in the first place?

[PT6ER]

If you can find an old copy of "Anatomy of the Aeroplane" by Darrell Stinton it is a very good read.

For a rotary wing perspective, most of Ray Prouty's books are written in a way as to be digestible (sp?) and informative without requiring huge amounts of mathematical horsepower.

My favorite is "Not Much of an Engineer" by Sir Stanley Hooker which is probably more narrative than you are looking for but is an inspiring read for up and coming aerospace engineers.

My two cents worth :)

Cheers