British and Foreign Publications: Some Recent Books Published in Italy, Germany and England, Specially Reviewed

At the outbreak of the War only England, France and the U.S.A. had properly‐organised teaching and research establishments for the science of aeronautics. During the war, the programme of these and other hastily‐prepared laboratories was directed to the immediate military needs, and it was not till the great strides in the development of civil aviation of ten years ago commenced that state‐aided research laboratories and professorships in aeronautics were created in a number of continental countries. Italy, energised by her new risorgimento, was one of the first to recognise the importance of setting up “schools” of research in aeronautics, and of these the Royal School of Aeronautical Engineering at Rome, with General Crocco at its head, is one of the most important. The present volume, dated rather grandiloquently from Rome “at Easter in the year VIII,” would not be called in England an “elementary” treatise. Rather, it is a complete textbook of applied aero‐dynamics which must surely cover the greater part of the syllabus “professed” at the School. Not the least important part are the hundreds (literally) of polar and drag curves of various sections, alone and incorporated in complete machines, including data with regard to slotted wings and fuselages. The majority of these emanate from the A.R.C., N.A.C.A., Göttingen and Moscow, but some are data obtained in the new laboratories at Rome itself.