Flow Resolution

Recent Reading

August 25, 2026, 2026 by J. Poggie

As background for a textbook that I am writing, I have recently read several books on the history of aerodynamics. Two of those texts stand out as very much worth your time to read.

J. D. Anderson, Jr., A History of Aerodynamics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 1997. ISBN 0521669553.

Anderson provides a history of aerodynamics in the context of general fluid mechanics. As with all of Anderson's books, the writing is clear, easy to read, and accessible to non-specialists. The text touches briefly on fluid mechanics from antiquity to the Renaissance, but it focuses in detail on aerodynamics related to human flight, starting with the beginning of the nineteenth century. Anderson covers in detail the work of Cayley, Lilienthal, and Langley. A chapter is devoted to the Wright brothers, and the conceptual contributions of Lanchester, Prandtl, and Eiffel are covered. The book closes with several chapters on modern flight, ending with the advent of supersonic flight.

D. Bloor, The Enigma of the Aerofoil: Rival Theories in Aerodynamics, 1909-1930, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011. ISBN 0226060950.

Bloor's text focuses focuses on the development of aerodynamic theory in the first decades of the twentieth century, contrasting the efforts German researchers with those of their peers in Great Britain. Bloor is a sociologist, and his book presents, in part, the case for certain theories of social science. The book is nonetheless very interesting as a straightforward history of science and technology. Bloor does a remarkable job of digging into the mathematical details and clearly explaining the development of inviscid airfoil theory and the lifting line theory of the wing. The theories of Rayleigh, Kutta, Zhukovsky, Lanchester, and Prandtl are treated in detail. Although the book is readable by a nonspecialist, the context of a graduate-level class in aerodynamics is helpful in appreciating this history.