J. Andrew White
Published: 2016-06-14
Total Pages: 212
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Excerpt from Practical Aviation: Including Construction and Operation It seems to be generally understood that the real value of a textbooks foreword is measured by its helpfulness to the reader in explaining how the volume may be studied to best advantage. Almost without exception, what is said here in front is supplementary and of a postscript nature, for, paradoxically, the foreword is written after the manuscript has been completed. Seeking to play the game according to the rules, I am forced to two conclusions: First, that I have little to say on the grouping of subjects and, secondly, that the typographical arrangement requires some explanation perhaps even justification. I will dismiss the first by noting merely that the analysis, in skeleton form, which precedes each chapter is intended as a guide, aiding dissection of the subject into easily remembered parts. These pages are in many ways comparable to the instructors preliminary talk or a blackboard outline before the class takes up co-related subjects in detail. To explain, or justify, if you choose, the typographical appearance of the pages, necessitates striking the personal note for a minute. The idea had its origin in an informal talk with a noncommissioned officer who was among the students of an aviation ground school class which I conducted at the outbreak of the war. By accident, his notebook came to my hands. It was amazingly comprehensive, covering by diagram and data an entire series of lectures. When I commended the student for its compilation he voiced typically youthful impatience with its limitations. I try to jot down each important thing you say, Sir, he complained, but I cant seem to get them verbatim. The diagrams I copy from the blackboard; that is easy. I am never satisfied with my notes, though, because its so hard to distinguish the vital thing to remember as you go along. Now if I could get everything word for word and devise some system of marking so I could record the relative emphasis of your voice well, Id call that a real notebook. That ended the episode. But in it was born the idea which forms the basis of this book. By typographical arrangement I have presented military aviation as it has been taught in the class room. The diagrams are those which have proven most valuable on the blackboard; photographs were chosen from among those projected on a screen by balopticon. Supporting text explanation of the illustrations has been arranged so the reader is never required to turn the page to apply its teachings each page is a brief blackboard talk or illustrated lecture, so to speak. For valuation of the importance of statements I have used relative sizes and boldness of type. Thus the volume appears as a series of condensed statements, presented in a form at variance with usual typographical arrangements, but, I hope, an exceedingly useful one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
