Written by a former, long-time international manager of General Electric Company, this volume offers a history of the political and market forces affecting the engine industry, GE's role in the changes, and how GE converted itself from military to commercial markets, with conclusions drawn for potential investors in the industry. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Douglas twinjet family, the DC-9;MD-80;MD-90 and Boeing 717, is beaten only by the Boeing 737 to the title of most popular airliner. In this book the author describes the background, design, development and use of thse popular and easily recognizable aircraft, from their origins in the 1960s to the 21st century.

Eminent physicist and economist, Robert Ayres, examines the history of technology as a change agent in society, focusing on societal roots rather than technology as an autonomous, self-perpetuating phenomenon. With rare exceptions, technology is developed in response to societal needs that have evolutionary roots and causes. In our genus Homo, language evolved in response to a need for our ancestors to communicate, both in the moment, and to posterity. A band of hunters had no chance in competition with predators that were larger and faster without this type of organization, which eventually gave birth to writing and music. The steam engine did not leap fully formed from the brain of James Watt. It evolved from a need to pump water out of coal mines, driven by a need to burn coal instead of firewood, in turn due to deforestation. Later, the steam engine made machines and mechanization possible. Even quite simple machines increased human productivity by a factor of hundreds, if not thousands. That was the Industrial Revolution. If we count electricity and the automobile as a second industrial revolution, and the digital computer as the beginning of a third, the world is now on the cusp of a fourth revolution led by microbiology. These industrial revolutions have benefited many in the short term, but devastated the Earths ecosystems. Can technology save the human race from the catastrophic consequences of its past success? That is the question this book will try to answer.

The fourth in a series of NASA/SAE Interior Noise Workshops was held on May 19 and 20, 1992 at the Graf Zeppelin Haus in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The theme of the workshop was new technology and applications for aircraft interior noise with emphasis on source noise prediction; cabin noise control, including active and passive methods; and cabin interior noise test procedures. This report is a compilation of the presentations made at the meeting which addressed the above issues.