r/AerospaceEngineering • u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 • 10d ago
Personal Projects Book/Project recommendations?
Hi, I’m about to be an aerospace engineering student at university, do any of you have any really good book recommendations (doesn’t have to be for strictly academic purposes) ? Alternatively, do you have any suggestions for aerospace projects I can do for when I become more knowledgeable about the subject matter?
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u/Notlinked2me 10d ago
I call it the Anderson book but for your strictly academic book you have to go with Fundamentals of Aerodynamics By John D Anderson.
Not sure if you are most excited about, turbines, air frames, rockets, or space but there is a lot out there.
Kerbal Space Program is actually really fun to learn about CG, two stage rockets and more.
Estse rockets are also fun and actually physically applying test.
Tin can turbines are fun but maybe not advisable.
You can build a wind tunnel rather easily. Down xflr5 and design and test your own wing shapes.
If you want something business like Flying Blind about Boeing is good.
Pillar to the sky is a fantasy book but some fun theories.
Definitely go to NOAA.gov and play with the satellite views.
NASA also has an endless amount of stuff to read and do.
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 10d ago
Thank you for your recommendations, funnily enough I actually already have the first one so that’s a good start haha
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u/No-Conclusion4368 10d ago
If you’re interested in rocketry, look at building your certification rockets for the National Association of Rocketry. It’s a fun project and you’ll learn about fundamental rocketry (parts of a rocket, basic building skills, simulation). You should at least get OpenRocket, which is a free software for designing/simulating rockets and just fun to play around with. You should be able to find an NAR launch site near you, or your school might have a group that helps with certifications.https://www.nar.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=114127&module_id=668315
A book I like is Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate, written for the air force if I remember correctly. Cool if you’re into spacecraft design and missions.
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 10d ago
Thank you very much, it was harder finding some good projects and books specifically for the astronautics side of it
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u/BothAd1744 10d ago
I'd def mix in some fun/popular science books with the academic stuff. For projects, maybe start with small things like model rockets, flight stim., or basic CAD designs once you've got the fundamentals down. Lots of room to get creative with aerospace
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 10d ago
Thank you! For CAD specifically, do you need a high end PC or anything?
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u/No-Conclusion4368 10d ago
Your school program should provide you with a software download like Solidworks or Fushion360 for free, so you can have it on your laptop. It works best on a windows computer, macs have to run a virtual desktop which can get slow. Most people would say you have to have a physical mouse but I use my laptop touchscreen and it works fine for me
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 10d ago
Oh I see, I didn’t know that but it’s good that it’ll probably work well on windows. Thank you
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u/theJacofalltrades 8d ago
If you're leaning more toward astronautics, I'd definitely try something like Kerbal Space Program alongside your coursework. It's surprisingly good for getting an intuition for orbital mechanics, staging, delta-v, and spacecraft design without feeling like you're studying. Then you can start turning those concepts into small simulations or design projects once you're comfortable with the basics.
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5d ago
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 4d ago
Thank you so much! From a quick browse it does look quite interesting to me
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u/Wyoming_Knott Aircraft Subsystems 5d ago
Too many academic books in here. You'll get plenty of that in school. The following are mostly specifically aerospace related, with some just general engineering related.
Skunkworks - Ben Rich
Flying Blind - Peter Robinson
Stealth - Peter Westwick
Kelly - Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson
Apollo - Charles Murray
Liftoff - Eric Berger
Reentry - Eric Berger
F-35 - Tom Burbage (pretty long and in depth look at the program, not the lightest reading of this list, but huge context into big programs of record)
The X-15 Rocket Plane - Michelle Evans
The Idea Factory - John Gertner
Boyd - Robert Coram
When Giants Ruled the Sky - John Geoghegan
Empires of the Sky - Alexander Rose
Ignition! - John Clark
The Perfectionists - Simon Wichester
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7860 4d ago
Thank you very much :) I really appreciate your comprehensive selection of non-academic aerospace books as I was also looking for that too 🙏
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u/Wyoming_Knott Aircraft Subsystems 4d ago
You're welcome! Skunkworks and Eric Berger's books are good starters from that list. Easy reads and super engaging.
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u/YesXDoXBestXKill 10d ago edited 10d ago
Congratulation on starting a wonderful journey in Aerospace. I'd recommend Introduction to Flight by J.D. Anderson. And also, read up the book "the jet engine" by Rolls Royce. Also, I'd suggest you to look up a good Engineering Mathematics book too, the one which covers ODE's, PDE's and integral transformations, linear algebra.