The Airplane: A History of Its Technology

by John D. Anderson Jr.

This new book was commissioned in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Powered Flight. It is written by one of the most respected authors in the aerospace world. John D. Anderson Jr. is curator for aerodynamics at the National Air and Space Museum, Professor Emeritus, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, and the author of several world-renowned textbooks. Contrary to popular belief, the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane; rather they invented the first successful airplane. The concept of the airplane was invented a hundred years earlier, and the Wrights inherited a century's worth of prior aeronautical research and development. The Wrights did not work in a vacuum; they admitted that they "worked on the shoulders of giants." Indeed, if Orville and Wilbur had not entered the field of aeronautics, and their momentous flight on 17 December 1903 had not taken place, the first successful airplane would have been invented by someone else within the decade. The time was right. The Wrights were the right people at the right time. Just what aeronautical technology did the Wrights inherit from their predecessors? How much was right? How much was wrong? Who were the major players in the development of this technology and why? This book will answer those questions. It is a history of the technology of the airplane, written with the nontechnical reader in mind, but telling a story that the technical reader can also enjoy. This history begins centuries before the Wright brothers and takes us to the present day. Technical and nontechnical readers alike will find this book fascinating reading.

Genres: Engineering, History

364 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

John D. Anderson, Jr. (born October 1, 1937) is the Curator of Aerodynamics at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.