Online aero course

If there is not some particular software offered to the attendants of the course, then you could try the XFLR5. It is a very well-made software, based on Drela's XFOIL aerodynamic code plus a nice GUI and a 3D panel mode: http://www.xflr5.com/xflr5.htm
Cheers

 

If it helps with planning, I'm interested in 16.110

 

The MITx Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics course lecture videos are now online:
https://www.edx.org/course/flight-vehicle-aerodynamics-mitx-16-110x#.VPcovIF4pUy

 

Maths Document

For those who are interested with "FVA" and with a fuzzy remenbering of maths
For Matrix and Vector "Revisions"; I ll suggest the following "Lectures Notes":

http://web.mit.edu/abeyaratne/lecture_notes.html

There is copyright, I hope I do not infrige anything, but if available with Google, I guess you can have a look with no trouble.

Hope it can help

Regards

EK

 

Another interesting link for those who need serious maths revisions before digging into CFD:

http://cfd.direct/openfoam/tensor-mathematics/

Cheers

Erwan

 

The course was archived and thus remains accessable, but the textbook tab (as mentioned on the page https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx 16.110x_2 1T2016/syllabus/#book ) is gone, right?
Any plans to make the textbook accessable online again, somewhere in the future?

Regards,

Jaap

 

The book is available on paper form, and it costs 50$ or 90$ I don't remember

There is no reason it could be available for free on Internet.

I ordered it from a link you could find in this thread.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish, it deserves its price, it is a no brainer.

 

Dear Erwan,

If/when you are enrolled in the course and go to the "Syllabus" tab, it says under "TEXTBOOK":

So yes, I think there is a reason for the book to be available online. It is mentioned in the syllabus it is.

As it will not exactly be the first book on aerodynamics in my collection, I would prefer to be able to compare them thoroughly before ordering Mark Drela's book.

Regards,

Jaap

 

If you already have 3-4 books on general aerodynamics, chances are you won't need another one unless they are research papers or they are dedicated to some specific area of aerodynamics.
Basic aerodynamics is covered in a pretty much similar way in all textbooks in my library (although some are generally written in a more comprehensive way than the others), and I definitely wouldn't buy another one of the same level.

 

Well,

So far I've been getting by on the subject (self paced learning from books - I am a mechanical engineer) with:

Larsson, Eliasson, Orych, "Principles of yacht design", 4th ed, International Marine / McGraw-Hill, 2014;

Slooff, "The aero- and hydromechanics of keel yachts", Springer, 2015;

Fossati, "Aero-hydrodynamics and the performance of sailing yachts", International Marine / McGraw-Hill, 2009;

White, "Fluid mechanics", 7th ed, McGraw-Hill, 2009;

Anderson, "Fundamentals of aerodynamics", 5th ed, McGraw-Hill, 2010;

Johnson, "The secret of sailing (draft)", unpublished but available online from the author's website at KTH, 2011.


Now I have found that, at least for me, self paced autonomous learning from books does have its limitations, so I was very happy to find the link to Mark Drela's course on edX. Where I was triggered by the remark "At the beginning of each section in the Courseware, we indicate the relevant book sections: you should read them before going through the edX material." in the syllabus.

So it just might be enough to have a detailed table of contents of the book to be able to figure out which part(s) of the books mentioned above to (re)read. But being able to browse the book online on the edX platform might be very convenient too.

 

That is IMO an excellent book, and very clearly written too, which covers almost everything that you need to know about general aerodynamics (and a fair bit more than that).

 

My impression was the same. So when anybody can help me out in figuring out how the content (as needed in the edX course) of Mark Drela's book "transposes" to Anderson's book I guess I'm good to go.

 

I audited the class and found it excellent. I am also an ME with a similar boat design library. Some Profs like to make students derive their way up in knowledge -stress academics not engineering - but Mark has created a class that gives a great understanding without getting lost in the math. The quizes make sure you understand how to apply the theory and when it doesn't apply. The hardest part for me was when we changed vectors faster than my mind could stop thinking in terms of the previous quantity. I don't think I bought the book. If you have aero books but don't understand, I would strongly recommend taking the course -great clarity.

 

Ooohh, foolish me!
The textbook ITEM under the course TAB. As in: not a textbook tab. And yes, the entire textbook is there, as the last item under the course tab, all the way down at the bottom. Available to everyone after the free registration.

Regards,

Jaap