What does an aerospace engineer do?

An Aerospace Engineer performs many functions in various industries. In the last one hundred years, the field of aerospace engineering has grown to include a wide range of opportunities from the obvious such as aircraft design, rocket propulsion research and interplanetary vehicles development and flight dynamic analysis to the less obvious such as race car design, meteorology, golf ball development and biomedical devices production. Since 1903 when Orville and Wilbur Wright were credited with designing and flying the first manned aircraft, there has been considerable change and development in the field of aerospace engineering.

Aeronautical Engineers rely on an understanding of engineering and technology, design, computers and electronics, and physics. With this skill set, they do many things:

• An Aeronautical Engineer applies the basic principles and engineering and technology to the design and production of goods and services both aeronautical and other products.
• An Aeronautical Engineer uses design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models to take products from concept to the finished product.
• An Aeronautical Engineer coordinates knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming to facilitate the design and production of the required product.
•  An Aeronautical Engineer uses physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.

A fascination with flight and airplanes or spacecraft is often the foundation for an aeronautical engineer’s motivation for entering the field. This fascination is typically coupled with additional interests in aerodynamics, structural development, dynamics improvement, propulsion advances, controls enhancement, design evolution or systems analysis.

Within the aeronautics industry, Aerospace Engineers can be found in large aerospace companies, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, general aviation manufacturers, such as Cessna Aircraft, commercial airlines, and government aerospace laboratory or research centers like NASA. The options for an Aerospace Engineer continue to expand.

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