Atmospheric and Space Flight Dynamics: Modeling and Simulation with MATLAB® and Simulink®

Description

Author Ashish Tewari provides an excellent introduction to applications of MATLAB and Simulink to aerospace problems. In the process of providing these illustrative cases, Atmospheric and Spaceflight Dynamics provides a comprehensive treatment of both fundamental and modern flight mechanics formulations. These derivations, of course, have frequently been published in other texts, and in some cases they are accompanied by FORTRAN or C code, but Tewari's approach with MATLAB is a needed contribution. Moreover, the publishers have helped make this an accessible book with reasonable pricing. I'd say that the backcover description of the book's contents are essentially true. In his own introduction to the book Ashish Tewari explains his intent to provide "a unified approach to aircraft and spacecraft flight..." which is something that certainly grabs my attention. Like many people in industry I am very interested in reusable winged vehicles with perhaps both jet engines and rockets. These are vehicles which would certainly need that unified approach and, to interject, I would love to communicate more with the author about such ideas. Although I did say that there are similar introductions to flight mechanics available for students and others, I should add that the illustrative examples given in Tewari's book are quite distinctive and remarkable in themselves. Some might be familiar or basic, but many take on new problems to the textbook reader that one realizes are lurking out there in the field of aircraft or spacecraft development somewhere. Ashish Tewari also wrote a related textbook "Modern Control Design with MATLAB and Simulink", also with aerospace illustrative examples. This book is helpful as well and I think the two together could be treated as Volume I and Volume II. Though when Tewari introduced the subject of a vectoring a rocket through the atmosphere as its mass and inertia vary along with its aerodynamic loads... I think he has set himself up for writing Volume III.