The Library Shelf

For many years prior to the second World War the two volumes of Fuchs and Hopf on Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics were standard text books in the German language. These books are now out‐of‐date and in consequence some six years ago Professor Schlichting and Dr Truckenbrodt were approached by Dr Springer, the publisher, with a request that they should write a modern successor to the Fuchs‐Hopf volumes. The volume under review is the first of a two‐volume work which they have undertaken. It is not surprising to find that the ground that they plan to cover is somewhat more limited than that of the earlier Fuchs‐Hopf books; the enormous development of the subject in the intervening years has made such a reduction of scope inevitable. In the two volumes it is proposed to cover fluid mechanics (Section A), wing theory (Section B) and the aerodynamics of aircraft including interference effects (Section C), but the mechanics of flight and the aerodynamics of propulsion are topics that are being left to other authors.