Aircraft Design 4 (2001) 147–149

Book review

Aircraft structures for engineering students (3rd edition)

T.H.G. Megson; Arnold, London, 1999, ISBN 0 340 70588 4 (paperback)

This excellent book by T.H.G. Megson is now in its third edition, with some rearrangement of
the content and other fairly minor but nevertheless useful changes made. These include bringing
up to date the materials used in aircraft design, more emphasis given to the calculation of loads on
the aircraft, and an extension of the chapter introducing the finite element method. However, the
opportunity will be taken here to review the book as a whole, for the benefit of those who are still
unfamiliar with it.
As the title makes clear, the book is intended in the first place for students, and as a text for use
in teaching in universities and similar institutions. This may require some careful selection of
material by the lecturer, since the arrangement of chapters in the book is unlikely to match closely
the syllabus of any actual course taking place over a number of years and at different levels.
Rather, the arrangement of chapters follows a logical sequence, which means the book is likely to
remain a useful reference for students long after they have finished their studies, and in fact for
others working in the industry. No doubt some of the later chapters}for example, on the finite
element method and on aeroelasticity}will be found much too sparse by those actually working
in such fields, but these chapters do provide a useful introduction to aspects of the subject such as
these for students and others not so involved.
The present edition of the book is divided into two parts}Part I entitled ‘Elasticity’ and
Part II entitled ‘Aircraft Structures’. Although not made clear in the author’s Preface, this
does imply that a prerequisite for a successful study based on this book is an adequate knowledge
of what is usually called ‘strength of materials’. By this are meant subjects such as equilibrium
conditions (as illustrated by reference to truss structures), calculation of deflections and
the concept of structural redundancy, and of course engineers’ bending theory. While the last of
these is covered in Megson’s book, it is done in a summary way as introduction to the theory of
thin-walled beams, and as such would be insufficient for any student new to the subject.
In fairness, to treat these elementary aspects of structural analysis is not seen as the purpose
of a book on aircraft structures, the content of which would be overloaded if they were to be
included.
The treatment of ‘elasticity’ in Part I goes well beyond what is usually considered to be included
in this subject, going on to the engineering theory of plate bending, and structural stability. The
latter might well be considered to fall under the heading of ‘aircraft structures’. However, it is
good that these subjects are taken out of the more specialised textbooks and given some
prominence here. The treatment of ‘aircraft structures’ in Part II covers a wide range of subjects,
from the calculation of loads on the aircraft, to the theory of thin-walled beams and tubes, the

1369-8869/01/$ - see front matter

PII: S 1 3 6 9 - 8 8 6 9 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 0 4 - 0
148 Book review / Aircraft Design 4 (2001) 147–149

practical application of this theory to wings and fuselages, and an introduction to aeroelasticity.
In the following paragraphs the individual chapters will be reviewed in more detail.
Chapters 1–3 cover most of what is usually thought necessary in a basic course in the theory of
elasticity. Chapter 1 deals with stress and strain, equilibrium and compatibility, and stresses and
strains on inclined planes. These are treated in a fairly concise but straightforward way. Chapter 2
is devoted to two-dimensional elasticity, the Airy stress function, and the classical problem of a tip
loaded cantilever. Rather surprisingly, the familiar example of a circular hole in a sheet is not
included. Perhaps as a result of this, there is practically no attention given to stress concentration
factors anywhere in the book. Chapter 3 deals with the twisting of solid section bars, making use
of the Prandtl stress function, and ending with the technically important problem of the torsion of
a narrow rectangular strip.
Chapters 4–6 continue with aspects broadly related to the theory of elasticity, but also of
considerable importance for the study of aircraft structures in Part II. Chapter 4 is devoted to
energy principles, dealing with strain energy and complementary energy, and the stationary
principles. Applications are to the deflection of truss and beam structures, and to statically
indeterminate trusses, beams and rings. The treatment is again concise but fairly complete and not
difficult to follow. Those requiring a more extensive text might be recommended to read
N.J. Hoff ’s classic book: ‘The Analysis of Structures’. Chapter 5 derives the differential equation
for a thin plate, along with appropriate edge conditions, and continues with the strain energy of a
plate subject to bending and twisting and describes briefly the Rayleigh–Ritz method for an
approximate solution for a plate under lateral loading. The treatment of the bending and twisting
of plates is quite fundamental, but obviously lacks the wealth of solutions for specific problems
found in specialised texts. Chapter 6 is on structural stability, giving in the first place an extensive
treatment of the buckling of slender struts and thin plates, the use of an effective modulus to allow
for plasticity, and the effect of initial imperfections. The problem of local instability in thin-walled
sections, and the buckling of stiffened panels, is much less comprehensively treated, as is the post-
buckled failure of stiffened panels in compression or shear. Reference is made to well known but
now somewhat outdated publications on these aspects, while the reader could have been referred
to the extensive data available in the ‘Structures’ series of the Engineering Sciences Data Unit
(ESDU).
Chapters 7 and 8 introduce Part II, which is specifically on aircraft structures. Chapter 7 is a
purely descriptive one, dealing with aircraft materials, with the basic stressed-skin structure of the
wing and fuselage, and with some attention given to fabrication of the structure. Chapter 8 gives
an overview of the calculation of aerodynamic and other loads on the aircraft, as well as a brief
review of fatigue. Both chapters are necessarily summary in nature. For the specialist in any of
these fields these two chapters will be considered much too brief, but for the student they do
provide some exposure to matters of considerable importance but easily forgotten in a course too
narrowly devoted to the theory of aircraft structures.
Chapters 9 and 10 will be regarded by most readers as the essence of the book, dealing
in a comprehensive way with the analysis of thin-walled beams and tubes, and the application
of this analysis to the wing and fuselage structure. In fact the earlier chapters might almost be
seen as the preliminary matter leading up to these two very important chapters. Chapter 9 gives
a thorough treatment of the bending and twisting of beams (with due attention to the simplifying
assumptions made for thin-walled structures), shear stresses in open and closed sections, warping
 Book review / Aircraft Design 4 (2001) 147–149 149

displacements and other related matters. Of interest here is the attention given to the idealisation
of the structure into direct stress carrying ‘booms’ and pure shear stress carrying panels, and the
implications of this simplification. Chapter 10 discusses the application of the theory of the
previous chapter to wing and fuselage structures in some detail, at the same time introducing less
obvious aspects such as the effect of taper, changes of cross-section, and the loads on wing ribs
and fuselage frames. Some consideration is also given to cut-outs in the wing and fuselage, though
here the treatment is perhaps rather over-simplified. While the book is in general about metallic
aircraft structures, there is also some attention given in Chapter 10 to composite structures,
although this might be considered by some to be out of place in a book of this kind. Although
brief mention was made of the function of the fuselage as a pressure cabin in Chapter 7, no further
reference is made to this in Chapter 10. This is unfortunate, because the requirements for the
pressure cabin have a large influence on the design of the fuselage as a whole, and students might
be misled into underestimating the importance of this. Also, no mention is made of the effect of
fuselage frame flexibility, which leads to a bending moment distribution in a frame very different
to that predicted by simple theory.
The last three chapters of the book deal with more advanced topics. In fact these three chapters
represent a substantial part of the book as a whole. Chapter 11 is concerned with shear lag in a
box beam, and with the effects of warping restraint in open and closed sections. Chapter 12,
entitled ‘Matrix methods of structural analysis’, is in fact an introduction to the finite element
method. Clearly, no textbook on aircraft structures would be complete without some reference to
this, and this chapter provides the student with a useful first step in this technically very important
subject. Chapter 13 is an introduction to aeroelasticity, with an overview of wing divergence,
aileron reversal and giving the reader some insight into flutter.
In conclusion, the third edition is a welcome revision of what has already become a classic
textbook on aircraft structures, and one which will no doubt continue to be used in lecture courses
as well as in industry for many years to come. The book offers a clear, comprehensive, integrated
approach to the subject of aircraft structures. It is well provided both with examples to illustrate
the subject matter and with exercises for the student. Mention should also be made of the
‘solutions manual’ to accompany the book, available from the publisher by internet. Altogether, it
is a book to be recommended to anyone not yet familiar with it, in an area where not so many
good texts are available.

A. Rothwell
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology,
P.O. Box 5058, 2600 GB Delft, The Netherlands
E-mail address: torenbeek@delftnet.nl, a.rothwell@lr.tudelft.nl