Why Airplanes FlyBy Don Dwiggins
31 pages

Don't be fooled by the description, "A Golden Gate Book."

Ostensibly a childrens book, this a is very clear and concise explanation of various theories of how wings produce lift.

Bournoulli's Theorem, Bound Vortexes, Boundary Layers, Laminar Flow and Ground Effect are all discussed briefly.

The author illustrates his book with colour photos of various craft that he has come across over the years. These alone makes the book interesting.


LCCN:  76013503
Author: Dwiggins, Don.
Main Title: Why airplanes fly
Published: Chicago : Childrens Press, c1976.
Description: 31 p. : col. ill. ; 25 cm.
ISBN: 0516088890
Summary: Briefly explains the aerodynamic forces that permit
airplanes to fly.
Notes: "A Golden Gate junior book."
Subjects: Aerodynamics--Juvenile literature.
Airplanes--Juvenile literature.
Aerodynamics.
Airplanes.

Stick and rudder
By Wolfgang Langewiesche
390 pages

Tom Sturm put me on to this book, I'm glad he did. This book provides some good insights into learning how to fly.

The tips come across as no-nonsense practical advice. Some of the opinions are a bit 'flights-of-fancy', as he discusses a 'safety aircraft', that sounds anything but.

The illustrations are very clear, if a little whimsical. One portreys the pilot in a dinner suit, controlling his craft with the throttle re-labelled the 'up and down lever'.


LCCN:  2004296809
Author: Langewiesche, Wolfgang, 1907-
Main Title: Stick and rudder : an explanation of the art of
     flying / Wolfgang Langewiesche ; special appendix on The dangers
     of the air, by Leighton Collins ; illustrated by Jo Kotula.
Published: New York : McGraw-Hill, c1972.
Related Names: Collins, Leighton Holden, 1902-
Description: 390 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN: 0070362408
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Aerodynamics.
Airplanes--Piloting.
Flight.

Publishers' notes:

WOLFGANG LANGEWIESCHE first soloed in 1934 in Chicago. Early in his flying he was struck by a strange discrepancy: in piloting, the words and the realities did not agree. What pilots claimed to be doing, in flying an airplane, was not what they were in fact doing. What the pilot really did was poorly describe in print and in airport talk.

Langewiesche set himself the task of describing more accurately and realistically what the pilot really does when he flies.

The first result, from 1940 on, was a series of articles in AIR FACTS, analyzing various points of piloting technique. In 1944 STICK AND RUDDER was published.

Langewiesche has been a test pilot for Cessna, Change Vought, and Kollsman and has also done free-lance testing. He was written on flying, and other matters, in HARPER'S, the SATURDAY EVENING POST, and READER'S DIGEST. He has made long trips over large parts of the world in airplanes of his own.


In the early 1940's, Wolfgang Langewiesche wrote a series of articles in Air Facts analyzing the various aspects of piloting techniques. Based on these articles, Langewiesche's classic work on the art of flying was published in 1944. This book explains precisely what pilots do when they fly, just how they do it, and why. These basics are largely unchanging. The book applies to large airplanes and small, old airplanes and new, and is of interest not only to the learner but also to the accomplished pilot and instructor. Today, several excellent manuals offer the pilot accurate and valuable technical information. But Stick and Rudder remains the leading think-book on the art of flying.

Weather Flying
Robert N. Buck
289 pages

This is a book in a similar vein to 'Stick and Rudder'. It is meant to provide practical advice on metereology for pilots.

It mostly does, you have to translate some of the northern hemisphere directions to our conditions.

It has some extreme advice, not very useful for ultralights.

The author flew for many years as a transatlantic pilot, and as a weather researcher. He flew in many conditions most of us wouldn't or shouldn't. That's the thrust of his advice too.

There's still a lot to be had from this book.

LCCN:  78006513
Author: Buck, Robert N., 1914-2007.
Main Title: Weather flying / Robert N. Buck ; introd. by
Wolfgang Langewiesche ; drawings by Pierre Barre.
Edition Information: Rev. ed.
Published: New York : Macmillan, 1978.
Description: xxi, 296 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0025180207
Notes: Bibliography: p. [289]
Includes index.
Subjects: Meteorology in aeronautics.