Prefatory Material

About These Notes...

This text was developed for a course in aerodynamics for stability and control at Stanford University. The course included approximately 20 lectures dealing with the basic topics, with weekly problem sets to encourage students to explore topics more fully. These notes were used as part of the course reading materials. The material presented here complements separate course in applied aerodynamics, aircraft design, and stability and control, and many important issues are left to those courses.

This digital text is intended to supplement more conventional textbooks as I have found that aerodynamics texts deal more with simple geometries and flow problems, while texts on stability and control provide limited coverage of aerodynamic issues. The material has been composed based on lecture notes over the last few years and is continually under development, so your comments and suggestions are helpful.

Why a Digital Textbook?

There are several reasons for using this format for the course notes:

• They are easily updated and changed -- important in the development process for the author and for students who may want to rewrite the book in places.
• Analysis routines can be built into the notes directly.
• The format permits easy access to information and organizes the information in a way that cannot be done in hardcopy.
• It is inexpensive to include color pictures and video.
• It is possible, by providing just a couple of custom pages, to tailor the textbook for a particular course. If the material on quaternions is not appropriate for the class, a new outline and contents page may be created that avoids reference to that material.

Please send comments to Desktop Aeronautics (info@desktopaero.com) or directly to kroo@stanford.edu.

About the Author

Ilan Kroo is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received a degree in Physics from Stanford in 1978, then continued graduate studies in Aeronautics, leading to a Ph.D. degree in 1983. He worked in the Advanced Aerodynamic Concepts Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center then returned to Stanford as a member of the Aero/Astro faculty. Prof. Kroo's research in aerodynamics and aircraft design has focussed on the study of innovative airplane concepts and multidisciplinary optimization. He has participated in the design of high altitude aircraft, human-powered airplanes, America's Cup sailboats, and high-speed research aircraft. He was one of the principal designers of the SWIFT, tailless sailplane design and has worked with the Advanced Research Projects Agency on high altitude long endurance aircraft. He directs a research group at Stanford consisting of about ten Ph.D. students and teaches aircraft design and applied aerodynamics at the graduate level. In addition to his research and teaching interests, Prof. Kroo is president of Desktop Aeronautics, Inc. and is an advanced-rated hang glider pilot.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the students in AA208 who are putting up with this first draft of the notes.

Copyright Notice

This textbook is copyright by Desktop Aeronautics, Inc. Figures and text were either prepared originally for this book or used with permission. In certain cases royalty payments have been arranged. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without express written permission from:

Desktop Aeronautics
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