The design and construction of rotating machinery operating at supercritical speeds was, in the 1920s, an event of revolutionary importance for the then new branch of dynamics known as rotor dynamics. In the 1960s, another revolution occurred: In less than a decade, imposed by operational and economic needs, an increase in the power of turbomachinery by one order of magnitude took place. Dynamic analysis of complex rotor forms became a necessity, while the importance of approximate methods for dynamic analysis was stressed. Finally, the emergence of fracture mechanics, as a new branch of...