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Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings?: Flying Animals, Flying Machines, and How They Are Different None Edition
Contributor(s): Alexander, David (Author)

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 ISBN: 0813544793     ISBN-13: 9780813544793
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
OUR PRICE: $37.00  

Binding Type: Hardcover
Published: June 2009
Qty:

Annotation: Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings? offers a fascinating explanation of how nature and human engineers each arrived at powered flight. What emerges is a highly readable account of two very different approaches to solving the same fundamental problems of moving through the air, including lift, thrust, turning, and landing. The book traces the evolutionary process of animal flight-in birds, bats, and insects-over millions of years and compares it to the directed efforts of human beings to create the aircraft over the course of a single century.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Technology & Engineering | Aeronautics & Astronautics
- Science | Mechanics - Aerodynamics
Dewey: 629.13
LCCN: 2008035425
Physical Information: 1.02" H x 6.28" W x 9.14" L (1.39 lbs) 272 pages
Features: Bibliography, Dust Cover, Glossary, Illustrated, Index, Price on Product, Table of Contents
Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/13/2009 pg. 41
Choice 12/01/2009
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
What do a bumble bee and a 747 jet have in common? It's not a trick question. The fact is they have quite a lot in common. They both have wings. They both fly. And they're both ideally suited to it. They just do it differently.

Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings? offers a fascinating explanation of how nature and human engineers each arrived at powered flight. What emerges is a highly readable account of two very different approaches to solving the same fundamental problems of moving through the air, including lift, thrust, turning, and landing. The book traces the slow and deliberate evolutionary process of animal flight--in birds, bats, and insects--over millions of years and compares it to the directed efforts of human beings to create the aircraft over the course of a single century.

Among the many questions the book answers:

  • Why are wings necessary for flight?
  • How do different wings fly differently?
  • When did flight evolve in animals?
  • What vision, knowledge, and technology was needed before humans could learn to fly?
  • Why are animals and aircrafts perfectly suited to the kind of flying they do?

David E. Alexander first describes the basic properties of wings before launching into the diverse challenges of flight and the concepts of flight aerodynamics and control to present an integrated view that shows both why birds have historically had little influence on aeronautical engineering and exciting new areas of technology where engineers are successfully borrowing ideas from animals.
 
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