Commissioned in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Powered Flight. The airplane is a system comprising aspects of aerodynamics, propulsion, flight dynamics, and structures. This book outlines the history of the technical development of the airplane. Richly illustrated, it moves the reader through time beginning with Leonardo da Vinci and forward to the present. In each chronological period, the various aspects of the synthesis of aerodynamics, propulsion, flight dynamics, and structures to the design of flying machines is described and critically evaluated.

John David Anderson returns to the world of superheroes he created in "Sidekicked" with an entirely new cast of characters in "Minion," a funny and emotional companion to his first breakout tween novel perfect for superhero fans who also love the work of bestselling authors Rick Riordan, Louis Sachar, and Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Michael Morn might be a villain, but he s really not a bad guy. When you live in New Liberty, known across the country as the City without a Super, there are only two kinds of people, after all: those who turn to crime and those who suffer. Michael and his adoptive father spend their days building boxes special devices with mysterious abilities which they sell to the mob. They provide for each other, they look out for each other, and they d never betray each other.

But then a Super comes to town, and Michael s world is thrown into disarray. The Comet could destroy everything Michael and his dad have built, the safe and secure life they ve made for themselves. And now Michael and his father face a choice: to hold tight to their life or to let it unravel."

The invention of flight craft heavier than air counts among humankind's defining achievements. In this book, aviation engineer and historian John D. Anderson, Jr., offers a concise and engaging account of the technical developments that anticipated the Wright brothers' successful first flight on December 17, 1903. While the accomplishments of the Wrights have become legendary, we do well to remember that they inherited a body of aerodynamics knowledge and flying machine technology. How much did they draw upon this legacy? Did it prove useful or lead to dead ends? Beginning with the earliest attempts at flight, Anderson explains how Leonardo da Vinci first began to grasp the concepts of lift and drag which would be essential to the invention of powered flight. He describes the many failed efforts of the so-called "tower jumpers," from Benedictine monk Oliver of Malmesbury in 1022 to the eighteenth-century Marquis de Bacqueville. He tells the fascinating story of aviation pioneers such as Sir George Cayley, who in a stroke of genius first proposed the modern design of a fixed-wing craft with a fuselage and horizontal and vertical tail surfaces in 1799, and William Samuel Henson, a lace-making engineer whose ambitious "aerial steam carriage" was patented in 1842 but never built. Anderson describes the groundbreaking nineteenth-century laboratory experiments in fluid dynamics, the building of the world's first wind tunnel in 1870, and the key contributions of various scientists and inventors in such areas as propulsion (propellers, not flapping wings) and wing design (curved, not flat). He also explains the crucial contributions to the science of aerodynamics by the German engineer Otto Lilienthal, later praised by the Wrights as their "most important" predecessor. In telling the dramatic story of the Wright brothers' many experiments at Kitty Hawk as they raced to become the first in flight, Anderson shows how the brothers succeeded where others failed by taking the best of early technology and building upon it using a carefully planned, step-by-step experimental approach. (They recognized, for example, that it was necessary to become a skilled glider pilot before attempting powered flight.) With vintage photographs and informative diagrams to enhance the text, Inventing Flight will interest anyone who has ever wondered what lies behind the miracle of flight. "I have long thought that need exists for a book, suitable for undergraduates, that would tell the connected prehistory of the airplane from Cayley to the Wrights. In light of the recognized excellence of his technical textbooks (with their stimulating historical vignettes), I can't think of a better person than Professor Anderson for the job. He has the rare combination of technical and historical knowledge that is essential for the necessary balance. Inventing Flight will be a welcome addition to undergraduate classrooms."--Walter G. Vincenti, Stanford University