The Power to Fly: An Engineer's Life - Hardcover

Martin Ducheny; Brian Rowe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563477092 ISBN 13: 9781563477096

Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2004

Synopsis

As a wide-eyed English boy, Brian H. Rowe watched the Battle of Britain unfold in the skies above his native country. The experience sealed his fascination with flying machines and hinted at the importance of aircraft to the future of civilization. In this gripping memoir, the author tells the story of his rise from an unassuming post-World War II engineering apprentice to become president of General Electric Aircraft Engines, the American company whose jet engines helped win the Cold War and make commercial flight affordable for average citizens. This is a personal account replete with engineering anecdotes and hitherto unpublished details about the thinking behind major GE products, including the F404 engines that power the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 jets, the F101 engines that were selected for the Air Force's B-1 bombers, and the CFM56 engines that power today's Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. There is plenty here to feed the interest of those who have followed the historical competition between GE and its competitors, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce. Later in his career, managerial and strategic challenges became Rowe's main focus, and the author gives insight into how he dealt with those as well. Overall, though, this memoir demonstrates the importance of human relationships and ingenuity as the true engine of history.

About this title

Review

"Excellent record of commercial jet engine business."

Synopsis

Moving on from the conceptual design of an aircraft, it becomes necessary to lay down the details of the airframe. This is effectively done in two stages--derivation of the applied loading and layout/sizing of the primary structural members. In his latest contribution to the literature Aircraft Loading and Structural Layout Denis Howe provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of loading actions analysis, together with the logical extension to the conceptual design of the airframe. He thereby meets two perceived needs that are not currently addressed by existing aircraft design texts, where loading analysis tends to be dealt with somewhat superficially, treating only the basic symmetric flight envelope, and where structural analysis often assumes that a certain level of design detail has already been established. The author's comprehensive lecture notes, accumulated during 45 years of teaching aircraft design at Cranfield University provided the basis for this valuable reference text that offers a straightforward, systematic approach to the quantitative derivation of the initial structural concept.

Readers will find a simple, logical, sequence to derive the form, location and approximate sizing of the main members of the airframe as a precursor to a comprehensive structural analysis and design refinement Graduate and post-graduate level aeronautical students will welcome the approach offered by Aircraft Loading and Structural Layout. Practicing engineers in the aircraft industry will find a useful loading actions reference, providing a simple method for the derivation of initial structural data for input to advance analysis programs and the interpretation of the output from them

Edition details

• Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1563477092
• ISBN 13: 9781563477096
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208