The greatest compliment that I can pay this book is that as soon as I had finished it, I immediately began to re-read it. This book is excellent. The science of flight is clearly explained in an interesting and thought-provoking way. For Prof Tennekes there is no artificial distinction between birds and planes; both are solutions to the same engineering problems. In a series of comprehensive graphs, he shows there to be a continuum from butterflies, though birds to light aircraft and on to commercial jet airliners. Although there are formulas given, the level of mathematics required for this book is not high. On the other hand, an interest in calculation is required. If you are the sort of person who wonders why things fly faster as they get bigger, how much power a budgerigar expends or why hovering birds are all small, then this is the book for you. And by-the-way did you know that while you're reading this your body is dissipating about 2 Watts of power per kilogram; or that a train requires about 1.6 mega Joules of energy per person per mile, which is about half that of a car, so is a half empty train really greener than a full car? Thought provoking like I said.
The MIT Press, 137 pages