…and the middle one (after surveying all the beautiful Italian people) says “Know any good books about missiles?”
And the last one says “Why, yes! I like the books from the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
And the first one in says “And then the frog said, ‘I feel all white and fluffy!” But that’s another story.
So James has asked me what books I can recommend for learning about missiles and he also suggested that it would make a good easy blog. Here is my short list:
1) Handbook of Astronautical Engineering by Heinz Hermann (ed.) Koelle. Hands down the best book for actually learning about missiles. When ever I have mistakenly first tried a different book, I always come back to this one.
2) Aerospace Vehicle Design: Spacecraft Design (vol. 2) by K. D. Wood. If you want to calculate something quickly, this is the book to go to. Its just full of interesting and important empirical relations.
3) Rocket Propulsion Elements by George Sutton and Oscar Biblarz. Ok, they are always coming out with an new edition so perhaps its not really from the 60s any more, but people expect to see it in such a list. But seriously, If you have Koelle, you really don’t need anything else.
I like books written in the ‘50s and ‘60s because they weren’t pure mathematics and actually explained things. That, of course, is an interesting sociological “observation.” You might disagree and I’d like to hear your thoughts. Also, if you know of any other great books on missiles, let’s start a list! Of course, we all run the risk of starting a run on these books, so make sure you have your copy before posting it! Books from the ‘50s and ‘60s are starting to be worth their weight in gold.
Sutton only scratches the surface. When it comes to liquid propulsion “The Design of Liquid Propellant Rockets” by Huzel and Huang is better. The first edition from the late 60ties is still available for downloading from NASA:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710019929_1971019929.pdf
Extremely nice to read is “Ignition! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants” by John D. Clark (out of print)
Cheers Bruno
Osprey Publishing do a good one on the “Scud”.
Another important aspect of missile use is computing the trajectory. A good introduction is “Fundamentals of Astrodynamics” by Bate, and White. It’s a Dover publication, so after purchasing Sutton you can get Bate and White for less than the sales tax you’ll pay on Sutton.
Someone should really get Wood republished one of these days. Prices on the used book market have done nothing but climb for the last decade…