Title and Author

Description

Dynamics of Flight - Stability and Control

by Bernard Etkin and Lloyd Duff Reid

This book has a good description of the various stability derivatives in a sort of "cookbook" style.

Airplane Performance Stability and Control

by Courtland D. Perkins and Robert E. Hage

This is an old book (1949), but still one of the best for a well-written overview of aircraft stability and performance issues.

Theory of Flight

by Richard von Mises

This is another old book (1945) with some good discussions of stability issues. Some of the theory is a little outdated, but overall it is still a useful book.

Flight Stability and Automatic Control

by Robert C. Nelson

This book covers basically the same ground as Etkin and Reid, but has in addition a number of good test cases.

Performance and Stability of Aircraft

by J. B. Russell

Similar to Etkins & Reid and Nelson, but the definitions of the stability derivatives are not the same (American vs. English definitions), so be careful when comparing the methods in the two books.

Foundations of Aerodynamics - Bases of Aerodynamic Design

by Arnold M. Kuethe and Chuen-Yen Chow

This is a good general aerodynamics book which has several chapters covering airfoil and finite wing theory.

Theory of Wing Sections

by Ira H. Abbott and Albert E. von Doenhoff

This is the classic book on airfoil theory, but it is still relevant today. It contains a discussion of airfoil theory as well as test data for a number of NACA airfoils.

Model Aircraft Aerodynamics

by Martin Simons

This book contains a good basic discussion of model aircraft aerodynamics, but does not say too much about calculation methods.

The Illustrated Guide to Aerodynamics

by H. C. "Skip" Smith

This is a good basic introduction to aircraft aerodynamics for those who are starting from scratch. The discussion is technically rigorous without being too heavy on mathematics.

Basics of R/C Model Aircraft Design : Practical Techniques for Building Better Models

by Andy Lennon

This book takes a very practical approach to model aircraft design, but also has some good discussion of various pieces of theory.

Wing Theory

by Robert T. Jones

This book is basically a monograph on the theory of finite wings at subsonic and supersonic speeds. The discussion provides some good insights, but there isn't much information on calculation methods.

Fluid-Dynamic Drag - Practical Information on Hydrodynamic Drag and Hydrodynamic Resistance

by Sighard F. Hoerner

This is the ultimate treatise on drag and is an excellent source of information on the drag of individual aircraft components and complete aircraft.

Model Airplane Propellers - Selection and Performance

by Howard H. Chevalier

This is one of the few references available specifically for model aircraft propellers.

Propeller Dynamics, Vol. 1, Qualitative Fundamentals

by Stuart L. Sherlock

This book gives a good qualitative introduction to propeller performance and theory.

Prop Talk - Understanding and Optimizing Propeller Performance for Model Electric Aircraft

by Donald W. Brooks

This book describes a series of tests to determine the static thrust of a large number of actual model propellers. There is some good information in this book which you will not find anywhere else.