Aerodynamics for Engineers: I.—The Atmosphere—Air in Motion—Bernouilli's Equation—Nature of Lift and Drag—Kinds of Aircraft

IN these articles an attempt will be made to provide an introduction to a large subject specially serviceable to engineers. Restrictions on space make themselves felt in various ways. Proper acknowledgments cannot be given for the sources of information beyond mention of the books of Bairstow, Lamb, Cowley and Levy, and Glauert, to which frequent reference has been made. No account can be included of the fascinating and often instructive historical development of the science; it must be assumed that proofs of various essential theorems will be sought in text‐books of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics; lastly, there can occur little opportunity for the working of illustrative examples upon which a proper grip of the subject greatly depends. The engineer of experience will detect much that, with slight generalisation, could be made capable of important use in other branches of his profession, but in this treatment we shall keep closely in view the scientific aspect of aircraft design, structural strength apart.