Aircraft Structures Second Edition

For a textbook aimed at undergraduate students, seniors to be specific, the three new major coverages must be assessed in the light of their relevance to the aircraft structures theme per se. A chapter on the fundamentals of three-dimensional elasticity theory can be justified, of course, but only if the subsequent structural analysis developments are carefully related to elasticity theory and departures therefrom as they unfold. There is little opportunity to do so, however, as only two of the nine chapters which follow contain topical material and illustrative examples different from the first edition, a masterful exposition of the stress and deflection analysis of trusses, space frameworks, and the built-up sheet- stringer or semjmonocoque construction so common to flight vehicle airframes for five decades now.The chapter on the finite element stiffness method is the significant new contribution to the book. Here a powerful and increasingly popular methodology is introduced to students, with the expertise of co-author Azar in this area obviously apparent.