TABLE OF CONTENTS "[Concerning] engines of war, the invention of which has long since reached its limit, and for the improvement of which I see no further hope in the applied arts "
Sextus Julius Frontius, Roman engineer
"In the development of air power, one has to look ahead and not backward and figure out what is going to happen, not too much of what has happened."
Billy Mitchell
In this final chapter, you are invited to consider several examples of the design method as it has been applied to several interesting and important aircraft and to thoughts of future aircraft. The knowledge and skills in aeronautics and the design method that you have gained by working through the preceding chapters should have given you a greater ability to appreciate the material that follows. These design examples or case studies include descriptions of the influence of technology and customer needs on each design and of the many decisions and compromises that had to be made in order to bring each aircraft into existence. Each case study also shows that each aircraft was shaped by many iterations through the design cycle, often involving progressive improvement of earlier designs into the final form of the aircraft.
Chapter 1 gave you an overview of the design method with an example, a description of engineering design in an aeronautical context, and a brief introduction to the history of aircraft design. Figures 1.3 and 1.7 should have served to inform you that design can be thought of...
