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Aerospace Engineering Overview - Preparation - Day In The Life - Earnings - Employment - Career Path Forecast - Professional Organizations


Aerospace engineers design, test, and supervise the manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. In addition, they create and test prototypes to make sure that they function according to design.

Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space exploration, often specializing in areas such as aerodynamic fluid flow; structural design; guidance, navigation, and control; instrumentation and communication; robotics; and propulsion and combustion. They also may specialize in a particular type of aerospace product, such as commercial aircraft, military fighter jets, helicopters, spacecraft, or missiles and rockets, and may become experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics, propulsion, acoustics, or guidance and control systems.

Aerospace engineers typically are employed in the aerospace product and parts industry, although their skills are becoming increasingly valuable in other fields. For example, in the motor vehicles manufacturing industry, aerospace engineers design vehicles that have lower air resistance and, thus, increased fuel efficiency. Aerospace engineers often become experts in one or more related fields: aerodynamics, thermodynamics, materials, celestial mechanics, flight mechanics, propulsion, acoustics, and guidance and control systems.

Aerospace engineers typically specialize in one of two types of engineering: aeronautical or astronautical. Aeronautical engineers work with aircraft. They are involved primarily in designing aircraft and propulsion systems and in studying the aerodynamic performance of aircraft and construction materials. They work with the theory, technology, and practice of flight within the Earth's atmosphere. Astronautical engineers work with the science and technology of spacecraft and how they perform inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere. This includes work on small satellites such as cubesats, and traditional large satellites. Aeronautical and astronautical engineers face different environmental and operational issues in designing aircraft and spacecraft. However, the two fields overlap a great deal because they both depend on the basic principles of physics.

Aerospace Engineering Resources

Online

Overview:
Overview of Aerospace Engineering

Preparation:
Admission Requirements, Alternate Degree Paths, Graduate Programs, Accredited Programs

Day in the Life:
Teams and Coworkers, Tasks, the Workplace

Earnings:
Employer Options, Salary Ranges, Types of Employers

Employment:
Statistics, Industries, Employers

Career Path Forecast:
Predictions

Professional Organizations:
Resources, Networking, Support

Internet Resources:
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
AIAA Ask an Engineer
AIAA History of Aerospace
Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society of the IEEE
Aerospace Industries Association

American Astronautical Society

NASA
NASA Explorer Schools Program

Society of Flight Test Engineers

US Department of Commerce Aerospace Profile

Note: Some resources in this section are provided by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Photos are courtesy of NASA.


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