This book, and the accompanying digital resources, comprises background and teaching materials for a basic design project intended to be part of an introductory module. Unusually, the book is intended as a companion and expansion of the digital files, which are stored on a memory stick and are the primary teaching tools.
The original project on which the book is based was created for students at the US Air Force Academy, where the authors are past or current academics. As such, it was intended for large cohorts of both engineering and general students, and this is reflected in the structure of the project and the content of the learning materials. The project brief is perhaps misleading in that it refers to a hypersonic transport, whereas what students will actually design, build and test are model rockets, ultimately constructing a boost-glider, the design of which will incorporate features that are dictated by the demands of hypersonic aerodynamics.
Being aimed at non-specialists as well as dedicated engineering students, the topics discussed cover a very broad range in the general field of engineering design. Various chapters deal with matters ranging from the fundamentals of engineering as a whole to aircraft and rocket aerodynamics, stability and performance, plus digital logic for use with the launch control system. It is remarkable just how much basic material the authors have managed to pack into this book: it is broad rather than deep in terms of technical content, but there is more than enough to support students as they work on the project, and the audio-visual materials provided are excellent, including video clips covering everything from basic mechanics and aerodynamics to step-by-step guides to constructing and testing model rockets.
That is perhaps the greatest strength of the book and accompanying digital materials: while incorporating the entire project into, say, a first-year university engineering design module might be problematic due to the resources and time needed for the project as a whole, and particularly for the ultimate object of it, namely the test-flying of the boost-gliders, the contents of the teaching files, and especially the video clips, could be very useful in all sorts of subjects that are part of an aerospace engineering course, both at introductory and higher levels.
