Since the education of aeronautical engineers at Delft University of Technology started in 1940 under tae inspiring leadership of Professor H.J. van der Maas, much emphasis has been placed on the design of aircraft as part of the student's curriculum. Not only is aircraft design an optional subject for thesis work, but every aeronautical student has to carry out a preliminary airplane design in the course of his study. The main purpose of this preliminary design work is to enable the student to synthesize the knowledge ob tained separately in courses on aerodynamics, aircraft performances, stability and con trol, aircraft structures, etc. The student's exercises in preliminary design have been directed through the years by a number of staff members of the Department of Aerospace Engineering in Delft. The author of this book, Mr. E. Torenbeek, has made a large contribution to this part of the study programme for many years. Not only has he acquired vast experience in teaching airplane design at university level, but he has also been deeply involved in design-oriented re search, e.g. developing rational design methods and systematizing design information. I am very pleased that this wealth of experience, methods and data is now presented in this book.

The Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering conference held in Erice, Italy in September 2007 at International School of Mathematics, Guido Stampacchia provided a platform for aerospace engineers and mathematicians to discuss the problems requiring an extensive application of mathematics. This work contains papers presented at the workshop.

This volume contains the proceedings of the CEAS/DragNet European Drag Reduction Conference 2000. The conference addressed the recent advances in all areas of drag reduction research, development, validation and demonstration including laminar flow technology, adaptive wing concepts, turbulent and induced drag reduction, separation control and supersonic flow aspects. This volume is of particular interest to engineers, scientists and students working in the aeronautics industry, research establishments or academia.