Michael French is an adventurer and a calculated risk-taker with a live-life-to-its fullest attitude and roll-with-the punches spirit. After a distinguished military career and retirement from the United States Air Force, Mike served in the State Department as a foreign service officer. The combination of experiences that colored his younger years in the military, the events of his second career, and the fortitude gained from his adrenaline-pumping hobbies have made him into who he is today. Now spending much of his time on the water, and with the energy of a teenager, Mike maintains and sails his beloved Ericson sailboat on the waters of Southern California and beyond, days, weeks and sometimes months at a time. When not at sea or at the marina, Mike resides in the coastal town of Encinitas with his wife, Patty, who indulges Mike's desire to explore and push limits, understanding and accepting that Mike hasn't yet "got it out of his system." Insta; sv_PeregrineHeart
'Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
Acknowledgements
1. The designed world
2. Energy
3. Materials
4. Mechanism
5. Structures
6. Systems
7. The practice, principles and philosophy of design
8. Economy, form and beauty
9. Production, reproduction, evolution and design
10. Designing and inventing
11. Some case studies
Questions
Answers
Suggestions for further reading
Index.