The Library Shelf

The subject of aeroelasticity is not well provided with text books and this makes the present book all the more valuable. One difficulty in writing such a text book is that although aeroelasticity is often regarded as a highly specialized subject and tends to be avoided by the average aeronautical engineer, yet it embraces a very wide field of study covering matters as diverse as linear aerofoil theory, both steady and unsteady, some boundary layer effects, structural theory for distortion of the aircraft components, problems of servo analysis and mathematical methods for the solution of large numbers of linear equations with real and complex coefficients. Thus, although the book contains nearly 500 pages it is correctly entitled ‘An Introduction …’ and the author presents each of his subjects with diversions into pure mathematics where necessary. These mathematical sections include introductions to Lagrange's equations, matrices and Laplace transformations.