Book excerpt: Drawn from early volumes of Aerospace America and its antecedents, this book rescues the insights, concerns, and dreams of dozens of structural engineers for the next generation of aerospace scientists and engineers. Written by eminent individuals in structures, this book provides accessible source material for university-level design courses in aerospace engineering. The first paper in Structures Technology deals with new structures for future aerospace systems and provides a contrast between our current thinking and past technology plans. Succeeding papers are historical reports covering materials and structures, general structures technology, aircraft structures, space structures, and structural dynamics technology. You will also find sections covering structural configurations, thermal protection systems, subsonic aircraft, supersonic and hypersonic vehicles and structures for space systems.