Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering, in its first edition published in 2014, has been a success (in my modest opinion): More than 1500 units sold via the various CreateSpace distribution channels; more than 2500 downloads at the website; more than 12000 reads in ResearchGate. Nevertheless, improvements are always needed. Along these (almost) four years,  several errata have been spotted and corrected in this second edition. In addition, some on the contents have been improved and extended.

As in the first edition, the book is divided into three parts, namely: Introduction, The Aircraft, and Air Transportation, Airports, and Air Navigation, including an appendix. Main modifications include the following: new exercises have been proposed, including computer based exercises in the appendix; some chapters have been revised and completed; the air navigation contents have been split into two independent chapters, namely: Air Traffic Management and Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance.

As in the first edition, space engineering is almost totally missing.
The course originally was aimed at providing an introduction to aeronautical engineering with the focus on commercial aircraft, and thus space vehicles, space systems, space materials, space operations, and/or orbital mechanics are not covered in this book. Neither helicopters or unmanned air vehicles are covered. I refer interested readers to a edX Course entitled {\it The conquest of Space}, an introductory course to space engineering (including both technical and historical insight) prepared by some colleagues at the Aerospace Department at UC3M, including myself.

Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 3.0 License, and it is offered in open access in «pdf» format. The document can be accessed and downloaded at the book’s website www.aerospaceengineering.es. This licensing is aligned with a philosophy of sharing and spreading knowledge. Writing and revising over and over this book has been an exhausting, very time consuming activity. To acknowledge author’s effort, a donation platform has been activated  at the book’s website. Also, printed copies can be acquired at low cost price (lower than self printing) via Amazon.

Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering 2nd Edition Cover

Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering 2nd Edition Cover