3 comments about Introduction to Aerospace Propulsion, An.

1. This book provides an excellent foundation in aerospace propulsion systems. It provides a comprehensive insight into the design and operation of different types of propulsion systems for aerospace application. These include turbomachinery, rockets and ramjets, piston engines, spacecraft systems, engine systems, fuels and combustion.
   
   The aerospace industry has experienced a consistent growth over the years and is expected to continue to do so in the future. Concurrent to the continuous development of existing aerospace propulsion systems, major efforts are now being devoted to the development of new technologies applicable to the propfan, variable cycle engines and air-breathing space launchers. With such developments, the student of aerospace propulsion will benefit immensely from a solid foundation set from studying this excellent book.



2. As a personal friend of Prof. Saarlas, and having taken a course in Aerospace Propulsion from him - using this text, I can say that this book affords one of the most excellent introductions to propulsion characteristics, and design considerations. A must-have for anyone pursuing design work, or workign on their masters in aerospace engineering.



3. I read this book knowing absolutley nothing about the propulaion systems of aicraft. I used the information I learned to write a comprehensive extensive reserch/experimental essay on the "Design Principals of Propellors". This book is good for anyboy with an intrest

No comments about British Locomotive Builders' Plates: A Pictorial Guide.

No comments about Junks of Central China: The Spencer Collection of Models at Texas A&m University.

5 comments about Vintage Slot Cars.

1. This book is a must have for any baby boomer, or for that matter anyone who wants to relive the fabulous golden era of slot racing.Philippe de Lespinay is the premiere authority on vintage slot cars and proves it with this beautiful collection of well photographed and rare items.What is even more interesting is the collection of cars pictured here with the original art work packaging!This is usually the first thing to be thrown away and as such,rarer than most of the cars. I went nuts just looking at the beautiful photos of Cox, Russkit, Classic,BZ, AMT, Revell, Model Products Corp. and many other lesser known companies like Internatonal and Industro-Motive.There is even a section on brands and types of motors.While the book is 96 pages of great slot car memories, it still wasn't enough for me. I can't wait until his next book comes out!



2. Philippe has not written the slot car version of the Gutenberg Bible I'll grant you, and you won't need a fork lift to unload the book when it arrives, as it's simply not as weighty a tome as apparently one or two reviewers would have liked. Me, I loved this compendium of the slot car phenomenon -- focused on the manufacturing luminaries of the craze in the 1960s heyday, many of whom were from Los Angeles. Several years ago I made a point to visit the buildings that once housed the various manufacturers in the Los Angeles basin just for fun... It was amusing to walk into these places and ask if I could root around the attic cos it used to be a place that made slot cars -- the answer was always no...and "by the way what the hell is a slot car?"
   I once met Philippe at his place of business where he helped me determine that a car I had purchased online was in fact a poorly renditioned recreation, allowing me to subsequently get my money back from the Ebay seller. I found him self effacing, eager to discuss the hobby, massively knowledgeable and... the reason I would later purchase this book.
   Vintage Slot Cars earns it's place proudly on the shelf of the slot car aficionado in my opinion. It sits beside my Robert Schleicher and Roger Gillham books and on par as far as I am concerned.
   Commercial slot car tracks and most of the hobby died a coronary very rapidly ~ I wasn't there, since like De lespinay I was an immigrant to America (82)from England. I have to wonder was this wonderful pastime partially stomped into the ground by self appointed slot car credential police determined to make the scene as exclusively constipated and anti social as possible? There's a fairly vibrant 1/32 scene now, and in many ways it is a return to the roots of the hobby that De Lespinay's book touches upon. The evolution of the hobby may mean an eventual revival of the commercial track concept (I live mere blocks away from one of the original survivors in Buena Park)...and who knows... perhaps this time when we do it, it will be minus the self righteous posturing.



3. You probably had to have been there to have enjoyed this trip back to my junior and senior high school days.

   As I read the book my mind flashed back to the slot car magazines I read at the time. There is much historical information I didn't know or had long since forgotten. I didn't and still don't remember the author as such a major player in the industry. Constantly he interjects himself into the book, to the overall detriment of the subject.

   Having chapters for each manufacturer was one of the strong points of the book. Looking for models I owned, raced, or dreamed of owning and racing was one of the highlights of the book.

   If you were a slot car racer in the 60's or a collector today this book is a worthwhile quick read. Otherwise there's nothing here for you.

   On the other hand, if like me, you have the magazines from that era stashed away in the attic somewhere and you want to enter the hobby of collecting now; your best investment of time would probably be routing through the attic.




4. Chock-full of DeLespinay's "small fish in a small pond" ego and little else, this book is a waste of time and money. While he'd like everyone to *think* he was "Present at the Creation," DeLespinay was a mid-70's emigrant from France, and thus a VERY latecomer to the US slot scene. Even THAT dying scene isn't remotely well-covered here -- there's NO technical content, NO valuation guides (you *could* go to DeLespinay's ludicrous website and automatically divide his prices by 5, I guess..); in fact, unless you enjoy nonsensical, name-dropping anecdotes about how Phi-Phi invented everything from fire to the Gurney flap (no kidding), and minimalist murky photos of such asinine slot-flops as the Asp and similar Thingies, simply give this steaming pile a wide miss. Instead, for REAL information from a guy who really WAS present at the creation, get the new Robert Schliecher book "Racing and Collecting Slot Cars" and any of his older books if you can find them.



5. Vintage slot cars, was not what I had expected at all. Maybe thats why I chose a single star rating. The book covers primarily large scale (1/24, 1/25 and 1/32)slot car racing. Very little is mentioned about the H.O. slot cars that dominated the slot car industry during the sixty's and seventy's. This was not apparent from the review I read at the local library while researching for H.O. Scale slot car books. Consequently after mail ordering the book, I was extremly dissapointed that the book barely acknowledged the H.O. scale slot cars. What photography the book has is very good, but I honestly expect a book of this size and type to have considerably more pictures than was present. The text, while interesting, is almost entirely devoted to regurgitating the same info about manufacturer after manufacturer without really outlining concisely the offering each manufacturer produced. The title should have been "Large scale" Vintage Slot Cars, at least I would not have thought the book to be something it was not. But I was still disappointed in the text and number of pictures.

No comments about Automoviles Americanos: Pasado Y Presente (Artes Visuales).

No comments about Golden Age of Transport: 20 Vintage Luggage Label Stickers (Luggage Labels).

No comments about Encyclopedia of Classic Cars: Sports Cars 1945-1975.

No comments about Classic Cars of the 1950's and 1960's.

1 comments about Edoardo Bianchi -New Edition.

1. This book provided a great insight into the full history of Edoardo Bianchi's many types of vehicles which are now almost extinct here in America. There are very few people in America which know anything about the Bianchi automobile and so I have found invaluable information in this book. The book gives full coverage on the automobiles, motorcycles, trucks and bicycles Bianchi has manufactured. I was thrilled with the text and pictures within this book. The book also provided me with the name and address of the world's foremost authority on Bianchi, which I am now having correspondence with. It will greatly benefit my current ground up restoration of a 1930 Bianchi S8 Cabriolet Prototype.

1 comments about Nautical Antiques: With Value Guide (A Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. Nautical Antiques is a book of well described excellent photographs by an author whose qualifications are that he observed ships from the dock as a child. There is little history, context, significance or scholarship provided. See American Nautical Art and Antiques by Jacqueline Kranz (1975) for the opposite of what little Robert W. D. Ball has given us.