Readings - numerical-mooc/numerical-mooc GitHub Wiki

• Introduction to Python for Computational Science and Engineering (A beginner’s guide), by Prof. Hans Fangohr link to PDF
• Prof. Randall LeVeque's book "Finite Difference Methods for Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations" (2007)—several chapters are available on his website.

Lanchester's "Aerodonetics"

"Phugoid theory" was first described by the British engineer Fredrick W. Lanchester in his book "Aerodonetics" (1909). This book is so old that it is now in the public domain, so you can actually download from Google Books a PDF file of a scan.

Lanchester defines phugoid theory as the study of longitudinal stability of a flying machine (aerodone). He first considered the simplification where drag and moment of inertia are neglected. Then he included these effects, obtaining an equation of stability. In addition to describing many experiments by himself and others, Lanchester also reports on "numerical work ... done by the aid of an ordinary 25 cm slide rule." Go figure.

MacCormack Scheme

This scheme is of major historical importance in aeronautics: it paved the way to computing solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with second-order accuracy in both space and time. It was introduced to the world by Robert MacCormack at the 1969 AIAA Hypervelocity Impact Conference, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, but the paper did not at first catch the attention of the community. The next year, MacCormack presented at a fluid dynamics conference and his paper was a landslide.

The original 1969 AIAA paper has been twice reprinted. Google Books shows the reprint in the edited book "Frontiers of Computational Fluid Dynamics" (2002).