Stick and Rudder's 'Safety plane'

On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 23:59:15 -0700, "C J Campbell"
wrote:


"Stick and Rudder" is not the revealed word of God on the subject of
aviation.

Nor does it claim to be. The subtitle says "an explanation of the art
of flying"
I don't see any claim about science or maths of flying. It is an
excellent non mathematical treatment of what pilots should know about
how aircraft behave and why. The non mathematical treatment means it
is a little long winded is all.



There are mistakes in it, as well as some rather odd theories.


Please tell us more.


The
bit about the rudder is just one of them. In fact, the aerodynamics
throughout the book are more than a little suspect.

Really???


Neverhtheless,
Langewiesche makes some good points. He was often right in what should be
done, but just as often wrong in how. It is obvious that Langewiesche
understood almost nothing about how air flows around an airfoil. He knew
that airplanes stall when they rich a critical angle of attack, but I see
little evidence that he understood why that is so.

Do you know? Do you need to know to successfully fly an airplane?



There are better books about flying. "Stick and Rudder" is valuable for its
historical insights into the development of modern aircraft, but little
else.


I guess that's why it's still in print. And so often referred to.

And yes I do know the maths and science behind flight. On first
reading parts of the book I thought maybe some things were wrong or
odd but reading it properly I realised he had things right even if the
language was a little old fashioned.

Mike Borgelt