Four American Aviation Text Books Reviewed: Different Classes of Readers are Catered for and a Wide Field is Covered

Each of these four books, recently published in U.S.A., is addressed primarily to a different circle of readers. “Simple Aerodynamics”, by C. N. Monteith (now Chief Engineer, Boeing Airplane Co.), revised by Col. C. G. Carter, is a text book for the use of students of a highly specialised type, namely cadets of the U. S. Military Academy at which institution Col. Carter is Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. It is interesting to learn from the preface that since 1921 all such cadets take a course in Aerodynamics, whether their ultimate destination is the Air Corps or some other branch of service. The book suffers in many respects from being in the main a third edition of one written five years ago. After reading it one is strengthened in the opinion that a subsequent edition of an aeronautical text‐book should, for the present, be written on the same terms as Mr. A. P. Herbert's book for ‘La Vie Parisienne’ at the Lyric—the author should not be allowed to read the original.