E. Seckel, Stability and Control of Airplanes and Helicopters, Academic Press, New York, 1964. This book has a good brief section on the aerodynamic issues for supersonic design, but it also has an excellent bibliography citing stability and control reports containing aerodynamic data and an appendix which contains aero data on the Boeing 707, B-58, the X-1, and the X-15, among others.
Bill Gunston, Attack Aircraft of the West, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1974. Excellent, although highly opinionated discussion of Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer, BAC TSR.2, Hawker Siddeley Harrier, Sepecat Jaguar, AFVG, MRCA, GD F-111, Douglas A-4, Grumman A-6, Vought A-7, Fairchild Republic A-10.
Lloyd S. Jones, U.S. Bombers, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, CA 1974. This lists the bombers by designation number. Photos and three-view drawings of each are included.
Lloyd S. Jones, U.S. Fighters, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, CA, 1975. This is a list of every U.S. Fighter up to the F-18. Two or more pages, together with a photo and a three-view of each design is included. They are arranged in designation order, starting with the P-1, and eventually transitioning to the F- series.
Bill Gunston, Early Supersonic Fighters of the West, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1976. Excellent, although highly opinionated discussion of BAC Lightning, Saunders-Roe SR.53 and SR.177, Dassault Mirage III and 5, Saad-35 Draken, Avro CF-105, North American F-100, Convair F-102, Lockheed F-104, Douglas F4D and Vought F-8.
Bill Gunston, Bombers of the West, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1976. Similar to the other books in this series. Includes the B-58 and XB-70 stories among others (I don't own a copy of this book)
Lloyd S. Jones, U.S. Naval Fighters, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, CA 1977. This lists every Navy fighter up to the F-18. There is only a slight overlap with the previous book. The planes are listed chronologically up to the point where the numbering system was made uniform. There are pictures and three-views of each model, together with basic statistics and a brief description of the development and operational history, including dates and when it went into service.
M.L. Spearman, “Historical Development of World Wide Supersonic Aircraft,” AIAA Paper No. 79-1815, Aug. 1979.
H.J. Walker, “Performance Evaluation Method for Dissimilar Aircraft Designs,” NASA RP 1042, 1979. (This report has a lot of aerodynamic data on supersonic aircraft. I lost my copy somewhere )
Bill Gunston, Giants of the Sky, Patrick Stephens Limited, Great Brttain 1991. This book provides a good summary of the largest aircraft of each decade from the before 1920 to the 1980s.
Christofer Chant, The World's Greatest Aircraft, Crescent Books, New York, 1991. This book contains one page on each of the most significant aircraft in aviation history. It provides a color sideview and a small three view, as well as basic statistics on each aircraft. It is a very nice collection describing several hundred aircraft, a few of which were new to me.
Paul Eddy, Elaine Potter and Bruce Page, Destination Disaster, From the Tri-Motor to the DC-10: The Risk of Flying, Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1976. Despite the sensationalist title and the fact that the material is dated and doesn't include the 1979 DC-10 crash at O'Hare or 1989 DC-10 crash landing at Sioux City, IA, this is a good book on the role of safety and economics in airplane design and operation.
W.G. Stuart, “Northrop F-5 Case Study in Aircraft Design,” AIAA Professional Study Series, Sept. 1978.
Wilfred C. Garrard, “The Lockheed C-5 Case Study in Aircraft Design,” AIAA Professional Study Series, Sept. 1978?. Very good in illustrating trade-off studies.
Lawrence M. Mead, Charles Coppi and John Strakosh, “The Grumman Aerospace and Gulfstream American Gulfstream III Case Study in Aircraft Design,” AIAA Professional Study Series, June 1980
others listed under specific aircraft sections
M.L. Olason and D.A. Norton, “Aerodynamic Design Philosophy of the Boeing 737,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 3, No. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1966, pp. 524-528. A very good discussion of the configuration selection for the original model. The original and long version of this paper was AIAA Paper 65-739.
J.F. Sutter and C.H. Anderson, “The Boeing Model 747,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp.452-456, Sep-Oct. 1967. The original overview, with marketing considerations, range-payload diagram, and some cost details.
M. Lynn Olason, “Performance and Economic Design Aspects of the 747 Family of Airplanes,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 6, No. 6, Nov-Dec. 1969. This paper contains details. It includes the payload range diagram, DOC at various ranges, The FAR takeoff performance and the efficiency thumbprint plot, as well as other information.
Jack E. Steiner, et al., “Case Study in Aircraft Design, The Boeing 727,” AIAA Case Studies, Sept. 14, 1978.
Jack E. Steiner and L.K. Montle, “Large Jet Aircraft Validation and Demonstrations: An Overview of Boeing Experience,” AIAA Paper 83-1049, 1983.
John E. Steiner, “Jet Aviation Development: One Company's Perspective,” The Boeing Company, 1989. Prepared for the Smithsonian to update “The Jet Age-Forty Years of Jet Aviation.” This is a truly outstanding document. It provides an excellent perspective, it is remarkably detailed, and includes technical and cost achievements of the Boeing company, as well as an overview of the evolution of the Boeing product line, explaining the importance of developing a family of products. It could only be written by someone who was there, and then can look back at the process from retirement.
William H. Cook, The Road to the 707, TYC Publishing, Bellevue, 1991. An outstanding discussion of the evolution of Boeing airplanes demonstrating how advances in technology were integrated into new aircraft. Written by an engineer who participated. Should be read together with Irving's book: Wide-Body.
See also: A.M. “Tex” Johnston with Charles Barton, “Tex” Johnston: Jet-Age Test Pilot, Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, 1991
Clive Irving, Wide-Body: The Triumph of the 747, William Morrow, New York, 1993. This is a description of the development of Boeing aircraft from the model 247 to the 747. Broader in scope than Cook's book, it describes the company's business and the economic, and political environment aspects as well as the personalities in more detail.
Karl Sabbagh, Twenty-First Century Jet, The Making and Marketing of the Boeing 777, Scribner, 1996. This is a reasonably good look into the Boeing design process.
Jim Upton, Boeing 777, Airliner Tech Series, Vol. 2, Specialty Press, North Branch, MN, 1998. A good overview, including lots of figures showing the airplane and lots of details about the flight test.
Orville R. Dunn, “Flight Characteristics of the DC-8,” SAE Paper 237 A, Oct. 1960. An excellent overview of the important issues in the development of the DC-8.
Roger D. Schaufele and Ann W. Ebeling, “Aerodynamic Design of the DC-9 Wing and High-Lift System,” SAE Paper 670846, 1967.
George G. Field, “MD-11-Evolution, Not Revolution,” AIAA Paper 87-2928, Sept. 1987. Very good. Includes figures with labeled axis for the tail-size and trim details!
P.A. Henne, “MD-90 Transport Aircraft Design,” AIAA Paper 89-2023, July 1989. This paper predates the final configuration selection, and discusses unducted fan issues extensively.
E. David Spong and George G. Field, “Design of the C-17,” McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, MDC 93K0052, May 1993. Presented at 40th CASI Annual Conf., Ottawa, Canada.
Arthur E. Kressly and Anthony C. Parker, “Development of the McDonnell Douglas MD-90”, SAE Paper 952052, Sept. 1995. This describes the plane after it was defined. It contains a lot of discussion about the refinements to the various systems.
Start with the overview monograph by Dennis R. Jenkins, Tony Landis, and Jay Miller, American X-Vehicles, An Inventory-X-1 to X-50, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 31, NASA SP-2003-4531, June 2003, available from the NASA History Site. The site also has other material on the X-15 program. In particular, see (description from the NASA website):
Joseph Weil, “Review of the X-15 Program,” NASA TN D-1278, 1962. This report covers 1954-1961.
John V. Becker, “The X-15 Project, Part 1-Origins and research background,” Astronautics & Aeronautics, Feb. 1964 (lots of references).
Thomas A. Toll and Jack Fischel, “The X-15 Project, Part 2-Results and new research,” Astronautics & Aeronautics, March 1964 (lots of references).
R.P. Hallion, Supersonic Flight, The Story of the Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1972. A very good book with good references.
Jay Miller, The X-Planes, Specialty Press, 1983 (more recent editions available).
Ben Guenther, Jay Miller, and Terry Panopalis, North American X-15/X-15A-2, Aerofax Datagraph 2, 1985.
See also: Milton O. Thompson, At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1992.
William H. Dana, “The X-15 Airplane-Lessons Learned,” AIAA Paper 93-0309, Jan. 1993. This is a paper of one of the pilots.
Kenneth W. Iliff and Mary F. Shafer, “A Comparison of Hypersonic Flight and Prediction Results,” AIAA 93-0311. This paper discusses the problems, and in particular the burnoff of the dummy scramjet. Some of the other papers don't emphasize these problems.
Louis Rotundo, Into the Unknown, the X-1 Story, Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, 1994. This is an extremely detailed account of the program. It is not particyularly technical, but emphasizes the engineering and organizational problems of the program. It shows that in many respects the NASA of today is very similar to the NACA just after World War II.
Jean Rech and Clive S. Leyman, “A Case Study by Aerospatiale and British Aerospace on the Concorde,” AIAA Professional Studies Series.
N.F.G. Harrison, “The Concorde,” Flight International, 4 March 1965.
N.F. Harpur, “Concorde Structural Development,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 5, No. 2, March-April 1968, pp. 176-183.
M.G. Wilde and G. Cormery, “The Aerodynamic Derivation of the Concorde Wing,” 11th Anglo-American Aeronautical Conference, London, 8-12 Sept. 1969 (this was published in the Canadian Aeronautics Journal).
W.J. Strang and R.M. McKinlay, “Concorde in Service,” Aeronautical Journal, Feb. 1970.
P. Satre, “Supersonic Air Transport-True Problems and Misconceptions,” 32nd Wright Brotheres Lecture, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 7, No. 1, Jan-Feb. 1970, pp. 3-12. This is a very good review of both the design sensitivity and drivers and the operational considerations.
M. Morgan, “A New Shape in the Sky,” Aeronautical Journal, Jan. 1972.
Geoffrey Knight, Concorde: The Inside Story, Stein and Day, New York, 1976. This is written by one of the key players, and stresses the political and organizational aspects of the program.
D.A. Brown, “Concorde Performance Maturing,” Av. Wk., Oct. 22, 1979.
Brian Calvert, Flying Concorde, Airlife, Swansborough, 1981.
Kenneth Owen, Concorde, A New Shape in the Sky, Jane's, London, 1976. A good scholarly review of the whole program.
Christopher Orlebar, The Concorde Story, Hamlyn, 1986, 8th impression 1994. A very nice good book with color photos of the vaious systems, and cutaways and many technical details about the airplane and its service record. The development history is also included.
C.L. Johnson, “Some Development Aspects of the YF-12A Interceptor Aircraft,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol.7, No.4, July-Aug. 1970, pp355-359.
Glenn B. Gilyard, Donald T. Berry and Daumants Belte, “Analysis of a Lateral-Directional Airframe/Propulsion System Interaction of a Mach 3 Cruise Aircraft,” AIAA Paper 1972-0961, September 1972.
Domenic J. Maglieri, Vera Huckel, and Herbert R. Henderson, “Sonic-Boom Measurements for SR-71 Aircraft Operating at Mach Numbers to 3.0 and Altitudes to 24,384 Meters,” NASA TN D-6823, September 1972.
Donald T. Berry and Glenn B. Gilyard, “Airframe/Propulsion Systems Interactions: An Important Factor in Supersonic Aircraft Flight Control,” AIAA Paper 1973-0831, Auguest 1973.
John R. McMaster and Frederick I. Schenk,“Development of the F-12 Aircraft Flight Control System,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol.11, No.4, April 1974, pp225-231.
David H. Campbell, “F-12 Series Aircraft Propulsion System Performance and Development,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol.11, No.11, Nov. 1974, pp670-676.
Ben R. Rich, “F-12 Series Aircraft Aerodynamic and Thermodynamic Design in Retrospect,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol.11, No.7, July 1974, PP-401-406. This is the best overall summary of the aerodynamics, and contains an amazing amount of specific information.
Richmond L. Miller, Jr., “Flight Testing the F-12 Series Aircraft,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol.12, No.9, September 1975, pp695-698.
YF-12 Experiments Symposium, Vol 1, NASA CP 2054, September 1978. This conference proceedings has lots of papers on the various technologies and an extensive set of references.
R.R. Ropelewski, “SR-71 Impressive in High Speed Regime,” Av. Wk., May 18, 1981.
Anon., “SR-71 Imposes Burden on Maintenance Units,” Av.Wk., May 18, 1981.
Jay Miller, Lockheed SR-71 (A-12/YF-12/D-21), Aerofax Minigraph 1, Aerofax, Inc.,1985. Very good overview. Includes disposition of all aircraft built.
Paul F. Crickmore, SR-71 Blackbird, Osprey Publishing, London, 1987. Many, many excellent photographs.
Paul F. Crickmore, Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed, Osprey, London, 1993. This book provides details of the entire program, including both the CIA and USAF programs, although the distinctions are rather jumbled. It includes design history, problems, lessons learned and a detailed discussion of most of the flight test flights. It also includes a record of each airplane and each pilot. The author quotes many participants in the program since many of the details were declassified when this was written.
Peter Garrison, “Desert Blackbirds,” Flying, October 1994, pp. 96-99. This article includes details of the angle of attack limits to avoid pitchup, as well as other operational details not seen before in print.
Jerald M. Jenkins and Robert D. Quinn, “A Historical Perspective of the YF-12A Thermal Loads and Structures Program,” NASA TM 104317, May 1996.
Timothy H. Cox, “Supersonic Flying Qualities Experiences Using the SR-71,” NASA TM 4800, 1997.
Peter W. Merlin, Mach 3+ NASA/USAF YF-12 Flight Research, 1969-1979, NASA SP-2001-1525, November 2002.
Peter W. Merlin, From Archangel to Senior Crown: Design and Development of the Blackbird, AIAA, Reston, 2008.
Peter W. Merlin, “Design and Development of the Blackbird: Challenges and Lessons Learned,” AIAA Paper 2009-1522, Jan. 2009.
Russell N. Hopko, Robert O. Piland and James R. Hall, “Drag Measurements at Low Lift of a Four-Nacelle Airplane Configuration Having a Longitudinal Distribution of Cross-Sectional Area Conducive to Low Transonic Drag Rise,” NACA RM L53E29, November 1953.
E. Ray Phelps, “Pressure Distributions at Mach Numbers of 1.6 and 1.9 of a Conically Cambered Wing of Triangular Plan Form With and Without Pylon-Mounted Engine Nacelles,” NACA RM A56B03, April 1956.
Russell N. Hopko and William H. Kinard, “Drag at Model Trim Lift of a 1/15-scale Convair B-58 Supersonic Bomber”, NACA RM SL56G23, July 1956.
John M. Swihart, “Transonic Aerodynamic Characteristics of a 1/15-Scale Model of the Convair B-58 Airplane”, NACA RM SL56J22, October 1956,
Albert W. Bentz, “B-58 owes performance to materials, design breakthroughs,” American Aviaiton, July 29, 1957.
B. A. Erickson, “Flight Characteristics of the B58 Mach 2 Bomber,” Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Vol. 66, No. 623, Nov. 1962, pp. 665-671. This paper contains many details, including the basic static margin (3%) and that this was selected from lateral/directional considerations. The story is told through rose colored glasses since the author was Development Chief Test Pilot for General Dynamics. But it provides an excellent model for describing a system.
E. Seckel, Stability and Control of Airplanes and Helicopters, Academic Press, New York, 1964. This book has an appendix with aerodynamic data for the B-58, among others.
R.Cargill Hall, “AIAA History Lecture, The B-58 Bomber: Aeronautical Innovation for Supersonic Flight” 19th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, St. Louis, Mo., 14 Jan. 1981 (also in Air University Review, Sep-Oct 1980, pp. 3 - 19).
Jay Miller, Convair B-58, Aerograph 4, Aerofax Inc., Arlington, Texas, 1985. An excellent history of the entire program, including final disposal of the airframes and locations of remaining aircraft (includes bibliography).
Jay Miller, “The Last Formal act,” Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, Vol. 49, No. 2, Summer 2004, pp. 106-113. This article describes a flight to demonstrate engine-out flight at Mach 2 and maximum dynamic pressure. The plane broke up in flight.
Ana F. Tinelli, Domenic J. Maglieri, Cornelius Driver and Percy J. Bobbitt, “Equivalent Longitudinal Area Distributions of the B-58 and XB-70-1 Airplanes for Use in Wave Drag and Sonic Boom Calculations”, NASA/CR-2011-217078, March 2011.
(See also the chapter in Gunston's Bombers of the West, “General Dynamics B-58 Hustler,” 1976, cited above.)
I. Pike, “B-70: The State of the Art Improver,” Part I, 25 June 1964, Part II, 2 July 1964, Flight International.
D. B. Rogerson, “Technological Advancements Resulting from XB-70 Performance Requirements,” SAE Paper 650798, October 1965.
William H. Andrews, “Summary of Preliminary Data Derived from the XB-70 Airplanes,” NASA TM X-1240, October 1965.
A. B. White and P. H. Anderson, “Operational Experience at Mach 3,” AGARD CP-17, Stability and Control, Pt 2, Sept. 1966.
Chester H. Wolowicz, Larry W. Strutz, Glenn B. Gilyard. and Neil W. Matheny, “Preliminary Flight Evaluation of the Stability and Control Derivatives and Dynamic Characteristics of the Unaugmented XB-70-1 Airplane Including Comparisons with Predictions,” NASA TN D-4578, May 1968.
Fitzhugh L. Fulton, Jr., “Lessons from the XB-70 As Applied to the Supersonic Transport,” NASA TM X-56014, Oct. 1968. This is a paper by one of the greatest flight test pilots of all time. He explains the reasons that the XB-70 missed the range prediction by 25%, thus instigating the comprehensive flight-to-tunnel investigations described below.
John H. Wykes and Alva S. More, “XB-70 Aerodynamic, Mass, and Symmetric Structural Mode Data,” NASA CR-116773, March 1970.
Terry, J. Larson and William G. Schweikhard, “Verification of Takeoff Performance Predictions for the XB-70 Airplane,” NASA TM X-2215, March 1971.
John H. Wykes and Robert E. Lawrence, “Estimated Performance and Stability and Control Data for Correlation with XB-70-1 Flight Test Data,” NASA CR 114335, July 1971.
Chester H. Wolowicz and Roxanah D. Yancy, “Summary of Stability and Control Characteristics of the XB-70 Airplane,” NASA TM X-2933, October 1973.
(See also the chapter in Gunston's Bombers of the West, “North American B-70 Valkyrie,” 1976 cited above.)
J.C. Daugherty, “Wind-Tunnel/Flight Correlation Study of Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Large Flexible Supersonic Cruise Airplane (XB-70-1),” I - Wind-Tunnel Tests of a 0.03-Scale Model at Mach Numbers from 0.6 to 2.53, NASA TP-1514, Nov. 1979.
J.B. Peterson, Jr., M.J. Mann, R.B. Sorrells III, W.C. Sawyer, and D.E. Fuller, “Wind-Tunnel/Flight Correlation Study of Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Large Flexible Supersonic Cruise Airplane (XB-70-1),” II - Extrapolation of Wind-Tunnel Data to Full-Scale Conditions, NASA TP-1515, Feb. 1980.
H.H. Arnaiz, J.B. Peterson, Jr., and J.C. Daugherty, “Wind-Tunnel/Flight Correlation Study of Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Large Flexible Supersonic Cruise Airplane (XB-70-1),” III - A Comparison Between Characteristics Predicted From Wind-Tunnel Measurements and Those Measured in Flight, NASA TP-1516, March 1980.
J. W. Ross and D. B. Rogerson, “XB-70 Technology Advancements,” AIAA Paper 83-1048, 1983.
Steve Pace, North American XB-70 Valkyrie, 2nd. ed., TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, 1990 (includes bibliography).
Valery Razgonyaev and W. H. Mason, “An Evaluation of Aerodynamic Prediction Methods Applied to the XB-70 for Use in High Speed Aircraft Stability and Control System Design,” AIAA Paper 95-0759, Jan. 1995.
Ana F. Tinelli, Domenic J. Maglieri, Cornelius Driver and Percy J. Bobbitt, “Equivalent Longitudinal Area Distributions of the B-58 and XB-70-1 Airplanes for Use in Wave Drag and Sonic Boom Calculations”, NASA/CR-2011-217078, March 2011.
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direct comments and suggestions to W.H. Mason, whmason@vt.edu