Flight Vehicle Performance and Aerodynamic Control (AIAA Education Series)

Flight Vehicle Performance and Aerodynamic Control is designed to serve as a text for either an 11-week or a 16-week course at the sophomore level. It explains typical methods used to estimate aircraft performance, the theoretical basis of these methods, and how various parameters derived from the aircraft geometry can be used to estimate the requirements of control surfaces and the aerodynamic forces required to actuate these surfaces.

This book includes time-tested computer programs that perform the analyses in a manner that reduces student error and improves result accuracy. Since the source code is given, users with a FORTRAN compiler can modify the program to suit particular needs. The major advantage of the software is that more realistic problems may be treated and the effects of parametric programs are more accurate than calculators. The programs are available as executables for Windows machines as well as in ASCII source code versions that can be readily compiled and then executed on Unix, Linux, and Macintosh machines and on mainframes.

Frederick O. Smetana is Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University. Prior to his 32-year academic career, he served as a flight test engineer for the Douglas Aircraft Co. and the United States Air Force, and as a research scientist at the University of Southern California Engineering Center conducting wind tunnel, flight test, and analytical research. Among his six books are two others published by AIAA.