Transportation Books

This book is my Bible. It does not explain you how to add 2HP to the engine, it explains how all that works and why, with theory, numbers and serious real world tests.
You may be interested in the theory: you'll find all you need to understand more detailled research papers.
You don't need theory: you may simply trust very comprehensive and clear conclusions which explain with figures and numbers how thinks work.
The book covers Spark Ignited and Diesel engines, indirect and direct injected.
The book does not cover recent works on high speed SI (like Honda VTEC) and turbo-diesel engines, as well the indirect injected stratified combustion engines.

Written 10 years ago, the author spent just over a decade to finish this book. Having said that, there are still a lot to learn from this book. I am currently using it as THE textbook of my course (undergraduate and postgraduate).

almost all the areas concerning internal combustion engines are covered in proper detail. it is useful for related undergrad and grad studies, also an indispensable reference for grad research work in engine technologies.

I'm not a mechanical engineer and I have been able to follow the book well. It goes really in depth in some places, so you have to know when to skip a few pages. But it is fine for a final year undergrad course, and I'm sure it would work for a grad course as well, but if you don't have a good math and science background (ie engineering), then just research www.howstuffworks.com and then subscribe to a few car magazines. There is a lot of practical info in here as well, but don't kid yourself, most of this is theoretical backround. I am an electrical engineer who wanted to get into hybrid vehicles, and I think if you are like me and want to just buy one book on ICEs, this is it.

Just as I remember it 25 years ago when I began Navy Flight Training. Still a great summary of aerodynamics.

It's a perfect book for those who wants to maximize their knowledges in Aerodynamics, and enter in an Airline.

Currently we are using this book as a textbook for my Aerodynamics class. Unfortunately for me, the book itself is difficult to understand unless you have a great imagination, piloting experience, several tools at your disposal (visual aids), or a great teacher. While our teacher is knowledgeable, he doesn't have the kind of skill required to break it down. I, unfortunately, have only five hours in the air and am not a piloting major. I had to go online several times and to a dictionary several times to learn what the terms "flare", "yoke", "attitude", and so on meant. I am not conditioned in any way, shape, or form for this material and so I have a hard time understanding it. Needless to say, the piloting students in my class have a harder time understanding the equations, but they understand the text since they "go up" all the time. I, however, need to draw on my five hours and on several textbooks, online aids, plotting tools, and online wind tunnels. I also found need to buy a simplified version of this book as a guide. While the integrity of the book itself is there, it requires that some experience be had on the reader's side in order to understand it to its full extent. I also think that perhaps the manual itself should also include a glossary, but it's rather old and was created ages ago at the behest of the government. I recommend it, once again, if you have some experience or if you have time to read and re-read some portions (assuming you have little to no experience in flight) since it will help you in grasping some of the material better. Also, chapters two and chapters three should be switched around. To make any sense of two, you have to read three first.

This is an excellent manual for those interested in all aspects of aerodynamics. Originally printed for U.S. naval aviators, it covers aerodynamics from pistons to jets, fixed wing and rotary wing. The manual includes information on Basic Aerodynamics, Airplane Performance, High Speed Aerodynamics, Stability and Control, Operating Strength Limitations, and Application of Aerodynamics to Specific Problems of Flying.

The manual is written at the university level and has graphs and formulae liberally sprinkled throughout the book. However, this is not an impediment and I have used this manual for many years and find it excellent for basic information.

Here's my very simple take on this book: if you operate (fly) airplanes of any kind, you need to have this book in your easy-to-get-to library. Period.

My only negative comment is that the current "FAA reprint version" (How did they get involved? This is not a typical "How to" FAA kind of publications!)of the original NAVOPS manual is of very poor reproduction quality. The photos and artwork look "muddy" compared to an original copy of the manual. The text is not crisp, while some of the photographs of wind tunnel demonstrations are simply not understandable unless you know already what you're looking at.

Although it was written in 1959 by Hugh Hurt of USC under contract to the U. S. Navy (and thus its copyright came into the public domain), it remains as relavant and informative today as it was when the ink was drying on the first press run! Incidentally, this same book also had a brief life as an Air Force manual, ATCM 51-3, Aerodynamics for Pilots, used by Air Training Command as a reference text in the pilot training program during the 1960s. The USAF version simply replaced the motivational photos of Navy aircraft with USAF models, but the manual was otherwise identical. It was eventually replaced by a much less rigorous edition, about one third the size and scope, that was, by comparison, almost useless. Seems that people found it too challenging, especially all that math -- a point I'll address below.

Some of the material will shed "AH-HAH!" kind of light on day-to-day routine things; other topics will inform how you ought to approach the extraordinary, whether it's a sudden weather change, or an in-flight emergency.

Not every pilot will find all chapters equally interesting. Also, experience has shown that the majority of pilots who are interested in the details of aerodynamics seem to gravitate towards the performance aspects of aircraft flight: Performance is generally easier to understand, but the real details of how the aircraft's inherent properties as seen by the pilot are only revealed in the sections on stability and control. Don't slight those chapters.

A suggestion about approach: even though you may have never flow a jet-powered aircraft and have little prospect of doing so, don't think that it's a waste of time to learn about the details of jet aircraft aerodynamics (as distinct from propeller aircraft). Why? Because it's easier to learn first about how a jet-thrust aircraft behaves without the complications such as torque, brake horsepower, etc., introduced by getting thrust from an "air screw." Once you're clear about these basics, then you will be able to understand a little easier how various performance and stability and control issues are affected by the propeller/recip combination.

Thus, the book is clearly oriented toward the operator/pilot and the things he has direct control over, or things that will affect his decisions or decision-making process, or choices of technique of how to operate his airplane. (You might be surprised to discover that a lot of techniques that are around were developed as easy-to-use compromises, needed simply because people didn't know the underlying details -- not because they're naturally the best way to do something.)

The only persistent objection to this text over the years has concerned its routine use of math, consisting basically of simple algebraic expressions, with some trig thrown in occasionally when trying to analyze things going on at some angle, such as bank or climb angles. There is also frequent use of simple graphs that show important relationships between two variables, say, angle of attack and the wing's lift coefficient.

Well, it's an accurate observation, but it's not a fair criticism -- and it's certainly not a valid reason to not use and study the text.

The book presents the derived equations, the results, obtained from other texts, whereby the pilot can see the physical terms that affect some aerodynamic terms (e.g., lift). In doing so, you also see two essential things: first, how the terms are related to one another; secondly, how changing each of them, alone or in groups, affects the airplane's overall behavior. You see, for instance, what's really going on when you operate from a high elevation airport in the summer vs. winter, how the change in density altitude affects lift, drag, engine performance, etc. Without the results-based math that this book uses, you're really guessing or relying on what other people pass along as rules of thumb.

Can you fly an airplane without knowing how to interpret the meaning of an equation? Of course. People do it every day. But: can you fully understand what you're doing without knowing the full scope of information that the equations are conveying? No, not really. Besides, it's a real kick to be able to visualize an equation, say of maneuvering flight, and translate that mental picture into a series of control inputs that make the aircraft do exactly what you want it to do, as you bring that mental picture into reality.

For example, once you learn to think, to visualize, in terms of knowing that an airplane's turn radius is proportional to the square of its true airspeed, you know a great deal more than the person who simply knows that as the speed increases, the turn gets bigger. If you understand the relationship between the wing's lift coefficient vs. angle of attack, you'll also have a deeper understanding of the most effective techniques for flying final approach at a given airspeed and how you might safely modify your approach for unusual conditions, such as weather or being confronted with a shorter-than-expected runway.

If you don't learn the language that conveys the details of Why the airplane behaves as it does, you're always going to feel a little uncomfortable, uneasy perhaps, just as you would if you were at a party and everyone was speaking some foreign language. This is especially true when you encounter a situation that the normal procedures -- the How of it -- were not intended to address. If you don't have this underlying understanding, you'll find yourself in a position of having to play "test pilot" -- without the benefit of the training and experience that usually goes with that title!

The last point to make concerns the book's age: it is more than 40 years old now. The short answer is that airplanes still only talk Newton and Bernoulli, etc., and those guys never get too old. The advent of the "electric airplane" hasn't changed the basic aerodynamic issues the pilot must understand. Rather, electronics largely just alters the economics of flying and has also enhanced safety considerably. Technologies such as anti-skid brakes or 3-axis autopilots have been around for over 50 years, working exactly according to the same principles then as they do today. What has changed is how much it costs to get the capability. In 1950, anti-skid braking on a military aircraft might add $50,000 to the cost of the aircraft. Today, the same system functionality is installed in cars, no less, for under $25.00! The variables (the equations) that describe stopping distance have not changed, however. For private pilots especially, e.g., the single-engine Cessna variety, the airplanes generally available to that market are much older than the book is. Even if they do have an expensive Glass Cockpit, from a performance and handling qualities standpoint a 172 is still a 60-year old airplane, no matter what the instrument panel looks like or its date of assembly.

A final comment: In my opinion, anyone who aspires to a high level of aeronautical proficiency that ultimately has safety as a major objective, anyone who wants to truly master his or her craft, needs to be able to study and learn at the level of detail and rigor presented in Hurt's technical masterpiece. It's a true classic.

just got my wife a used air brush. she thinks this book will help her get started on several projects she has planned. she is used to oil painting, and says this looks like fun.
thanks!

I'll start off by saying I keep picking up this book over and over. The Troubleshooting chapter is so detailed. It covers nearly every problem I have ever had with an airbrush. I have other airbrush books and none of them have this much "fix it" info. That one chapter has saved me so much time and stress.
The rest of the book is great also. One of the learning chapters has a really fun exercise that was so easy but gave me really cool results.
The book is very easy to follow and the examples in the book can be applied to almost any airbrush project. She uses a common sense approach that takes away the complications that come up when I'm trying to learn a new technique.
And unlike my other airbrush books, it has lots of photos. The example chapters have many photos that cover each little step.
It also tells how to get great ideas to airbrush.
And I really appricated the way she also tells how to deal with how to not get discouraged when things go wrong. How to deal with the stress that comes from trying to be be artistic.
I have another of JoAnn's books and while I enjoyed that one, I like this one better.
It is also a large book with nearly 200 pages. I feel this book was a great buy.

I've been looking for an informative,complete and properly illustrated book that doesn't make the attempt to go over the heads of any novice, like me, and yet, covers all the neat little tricks that a good teacher of any skill and art combined, can put into a comprehensive book. I never lost interest at all. My attention span is a good way of telling me when a book that I'm reading is worth it's mud at all! I like this author,Ms. JoAnn Bortles puts it all out there in a way that makes it easy to apply to my own techniques as I go through each lesson. I like this book. I think it's the Bomb!! And I would recommend it as a fine gift for a friend or a personal purchase any time.

This would have to be the best book I've read about custom painting and airbrushing on cars/bikes. The book is great for the beginner (like me) who wants to know about airbrushes, suitable paints, and the techniques to start creating a custom paint job.

Very comprehensive. I felt the author was having a personal casual discussion with me about what I wanted to learn instead of just documenting technical information and techniques. Teaching painting techniques in writing must be a tough task, but I think the author did a good job.

This new Thomas & Friends story adds to a great tradition and is a perfect complement to the DVD of the same name. The illustrations are rich and engaging and the story is fast-paced and well told. The book itself is beautifully made, with a fully illustrated jacket over the illustrated hard cover. It's the perfect size to read to younger children, or for older children to pick up on their own.

If you have the DVD, this will be a great companion. If you don't, the book stands well on its own! This book is a must-have for Thomas fans and a great introduction for new readers.

There is no finer or more informative book in print. This book has every important piece of information you need to know about the quadrajet. There are many other good books, this is the best book!!!!

Since I have a recent Quadrajet, 1986 with electronic controls, I needed to be able to rebuild my carburator without screwing it up. The performance modifications section wasn't of great value to me. The authors coverage of the APT was a bit superficial. He chose to advise the reader to count the number of turns to remove it, when in reality you need to count the number of turns til it bottoms out, then you know where to set it upon re-assembly. His advise was not to mess with it but put it back to the factory setting, assuming it was at the factory setting to begin with. Since I knew my carb was running rich to begin with, I leaned out the APT from where it was when I removed it and the authors APT test worked as described. My motor now runs nice and smooth.

Overall this was a very good book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how the Quadrajet works before taking one apart.

Carl King
[...]

This book is a must when modifying or rebuilding your quadrajet. I have a 1969 q-jet and this book gave me the bravery to dig into my carb. I came out with flying colors as my car now runs like a top. Ruggles knows his stuff, and would love to meet the man someday!! They should call him "Quadman"

Overall, this book is an excellent supplement to Roe's book on Q-jets. The book should have been edited better for those who actually work on their carburetor (I would give 3 stars for editing, but entered 5 for content). The technical information I needed to make modifications to my carbs was there, however, usually in at least two or more places in the book. This is only a little irritating compared to not finding the info at all. I ended up making a spreadsheet from the info scattered throughout the book for a particular application so that I could have a one page reference. Flipping through the book while trying to work proves too slow. If you're going to actually work on a Q-jet, particularly to get better performance, or use on an engine swap or modified engine, you should consider this book a must have supplement to Roe.

What a GREAT book. Cliff really out did himself. Bravo!!!

An excellent book for anyone starting to learn celestial navigation. It provides sufficient theory to explain the basics without baffling anyone able to understand simple arithmetic and geometry. This is the best book on this subject that I have read to date.

Before crossing the Atlantic in 1978 on my 22' sailboat, I read many books on celestial navigation and became convinced that it was an inpenetrable subject and then, on reflection, I realized that that could not be so as so many navigators had had less geometry etc than me. I figured the authors did not really know what they were talking about. And then I came across Prof. Blewett at the Boston Museum of Science, teaching on 10 Wednesday evenings. After the first lecture, on the noon sight, she said, if you your boat is going faster than 20 kts then you don't have to come back for more. That is all you need. She was absolutely right. But I did continue -- I took the course so I could do the fun-and-games of star sights too. I can now teach her course in 45 minutes.

Celestial navigation, like knots and splices and reading maritime charts and tide tables, is one of the essential sailing skills. Whether you are a daysailer, weekender, blue water cruiser or lone circumnavigator, there WILL come a time when the GPS quits, the Loran won't work, and you're going to say, "Where the &$@!* am I?". If you haven't learned celestial nav at that point you had better be a real quick study or have hired a good estate planning lawyer.

But assuming that Clarence Darrow Dershowitz Kunstler Belli Nizer, Esq. isn't in your crew, Mary Blewitt's book is a good thing to have. Brief, concise, and Ptolemaically simple to understand, Blewitt takes the hocus-pocus out of asking the heavens for directions. The difficulty with learning celestial nav isn't so much the math (as most people want to believe) as it is that modern man is SO far out of touch with the natural world that looking at the night sky is like looking at---something dark and mysterious. However, add a few very basic, easy-to-grasp concepts to your skill set and your Sunfish will suddenly become the Santa Maria.

Knowing celestial navigation will help you to sail anywhere and, even better, to know where you are when you get there. To that end, this book is an invaluable learning tool.

An excellent and clearly written book.
Easy to follow and understand.
A must for anyone interested in this subject.
Written by an expert for both beginners and experts.
I am delighted I purchased it.

This is a neat little book to read if you're serious about finding your position without the benefit of GPS. It's well written and the computations required are basically only addition and subtraction. You can practice using a GPS instrument to check your sights. (What you will find is that you need a lot of practice to get even close!)

Like any good quality automobile book this one makes you want tou go out and buy a new sports car.

Porsche , the road from zuffenhausen is a wonderful book regarding the historical perspectives of porsche cars !! A great book for porsche fans,collector's and historians ! The complete history of all model porsche cars , many beautiful photos and original documents and posters ! A great reference book for the porsche owner ! The best porsche book on the market ! A great coffee table porsche book !

I bought this book for my daughter for Christmas, she is going through a "I love Porsche" phase right now. We currently live just down the road from Zuffenhausen, Germany and the book couldn't have been more appropriate. She has thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and has learned so much about how the company and car designs have evolved over the years.

I bought this book as my main reference for a paper I am writing about Porsche for business class, but my use for this book will not end there. I found this book not only informative, but interesting, and insightful. The pictures were plentiful, but not over done, beautiful, and well described. I will undoubtedly have this book for the rest of my life, and is a must for every car-enthusiast!!

Let me confess right off, I absolutely love cars designed by Porsche, I have always found the car to be sexy and elegant. When i see someone pull up next to me in a Carerra with the top down, I just sit and stare with envey. As for this book, it is quite simply fantastic, it is easy to read and well researched, almost scholarly and the images are crisp and well placed throughout the book. You see the evolution of the automaker and get a real feel for what has made the company so successful. If you have any interest in Porsche or just cars in general, then I highly recommend this book...pricy yes, but well worth it...the car and this book.

We have all 4 books in this series and we love them all! Great pictures and words for my little two year old.

Great pics!! The only con--if any, I think is that maybe the words could be a little more general. (i.e just "firetruck" or "tractor" instead of the formal full name.) But overall this book is awesome! Because of this book, one of my son's first words was "mail truck!" :) We love it!

My 18 month old is talking up a storm and LOVES trucks. He insists on reading this book over and over. The pictures are clear and he can now name EVERY truck in the book although he has some trouble with "car transporter". The word is a bit long for a kiddie book but he's certainly up for the challenge. I would recommend this book for any truck lover or word enthusiast. It is not a story book, just pictures and words. Some other vehicles include "mini loader", "digger", "ambulance", "fuel truck", "cement mixer", "fire engine".

my DAUGHTER loves things that go - trucks, buses, cars...we both have learned lots from this book -- there are so many types of trucks and things that go that I did not the names to and many common things we see every day like the mail truck or fire truck.

Encarta Dictionary defines truck as "large commercial freight transport vehicle" or alternatively "a large vehicle for transporting goods by road".

On the back cover of this Bright Baby book the publisher pledges "This book will increase your child's vocabulary by associating words with beautiful pictures".

So what's the problem?

On the front cover we see a bright yellow mini loader - interesting, but definitely not a truck. The book also wrongly identifies tractors, diggers, scrapers, bulldozers, grass cutters, and excavators as trucks. All are fun to look at heavy equipment, but none are trucks.

Books purporting to be educationally valuable should be factually correct.

Therefore the most I can give it is two stars. It would be one except that my nephew's one year old Jacob just can't get enough of it, notwithstanding the inaccuracies.

Former Disney artist Bill Peet brings a Disney-like feel to his books, especially this one which features a great story about what one wishes for and what one sometimes winds up with. The drawings are works of art, and the story gives parents a chance to talk about railroads and wishes. No robots, no monsters, no computers, just a gentle story and fabulous art.

Another of my family's all time favorites. This story is filled with so much excitement and adventure. It is a sheer joy to read out loud. The illustrations are timeless and stunning in detail and humor. This book along with all Mr. Peet's others should be compulsorily stocked on every household's bookshelf!

Great artwork combined with a good story makes this an all time favorite and makes Katy a hero. All of my kids (especially my boys) loved this book. There are always big smiles when I finish reading how "Katy did."

The Author Bill Peet has the gift to spark the imagination of all children. His stories are amazing. There are over 30 kids books by him and I recommend them all!The Caboose Who Got Loose (Sandpiper Books)

This is a children's book with a complete plot, in rhyming prose, like no other! It deserves to be a classic on every American boys list. Featuring a caboose that transforms above regretting her role, and then obtains her ideal. With a full double-page drawing of like say 10 workers rehabilitating a locomotive! How could it get better than that! Warning: my 2 year old Thomas-lover won't let us put him to bed without reading this book, too. 2nd Warning: the same 2-year-old is petrified of the picture of the searchlight shining on the moose on the second to last page. He makes me try to skip that page. Something about the expression of a moose in the headlights that bothers him, I suppose.