Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. The former deals with craft that stay within Earth's atmosphere, and the latter with craft that operate outside it.
Aerospace Engineering deals with the design, construction, and application of the science behind the forces and physical properties of aircraft, rockets, flying craft, and spacecraft. The field also covers their aerodynamic characteristics and behaviors, airfoil, control surfaces, lift, drag, and other properties. Aerospace engineering is not to be confused with the various other fields of engineering that go into designing these complex craft. For example, the design of aircraft avionics, while certainly part of the system as a whole, would rather be considered electrical engineering, or perhaps computer engineering. The landing gear system on an aircraft may fall into the field of mechanical engineering, and so forth. It is typically a large combination of many disciplines that makes up aeronautical engineering.
While aeronautical engineering was the original term, the broader "aerospace" has superseded it in usage, as flight technology advanced to include craft operating in outer space. Aerospace engineering, particularly the astronautics branch, is referred to colloquially as "rocket science".
Overview
Flight vehicles undergo severe conditions such as extreme changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature, with structural loads applied upon vehicle components. Consequently, they are usually the products of various technological and engineering disciplines including aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, materials science, structural analysis and manufacturing. These technologies are collectively known as aerospace engineering. Because of the complexity of the field, aerospace engineering is conducted by a team of engineers, each specializing in their own branches of science.
The development and manufacturing of a modern flight vehicle is an extremely complex process and demands careful balance and compromise between abilities, design, available technology and costs. Aerospace engineers design, test, and supervise the manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space.
History.
The origin of aerospace engineering can be traced back to the aviation pioneers around the late 19th century to early 20th centuries, although the work of Sir George Cayley has recently been dated as being from the last decade of the 18th to mid 19th century. One of the most important people in the history of aeronautics, Cayley was a pioneer in aeronautical engineering and is credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag, which are in effect on any flight vehicle Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering was largely empirical with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering. Scientists understood some key elements of aerospace engineering , like fluid dynamics, in the 18th century. Several years later after the successful flights by the Wright brothers, the 1910s saw the development of aeronautical engineering through the design of World War I military aircraft.
The first definition of aerospace engineering appeared in February 1958. The definition considered the Earth's atmosphere and the outer space as a single realm, thereby encompassing both aircraft (aero) and spacecraft (space) under a newly coined word aerospace. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958 as a response to the Cold War. United States aerospace engineers launched the first American satellite on January 31, 1958 in response to the USSR launching Sputnik on October 4, 1957.
Some of the elements of aerospace engineering are:
A fighter jet engine undergoing testing. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape.
Fluid mechanics – the study of fluid flow around objects. Specifically aerodynamics concerning the flow of air over bodies such as wings or through objects such as wind tunnels (see also lift and aeronautics).
Astrodynamics – the study of orbital mechanics including prediction of orbital elements when given a select few variables. While few schools in the United States teach this at the undergraduate level, several have graduate programs covering this topic (usually in conjunction with the Physics department of said college or university).
Statics and Dynamics (engineering mechanics) – the study of movement, forces, moments in mechanical systems.
Mathematics – in particular, calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra.
Electrotechnology – the study of electronics within engineering.
Propulsion – the energy to move a vehicle through the air (or in outer space) is provided by internal combustion engines, jet engines and turbomachinery, or rockets (see also propeller and spacecraft propulsion). A more recent addition to this module is electric propulsion and ion propulsion.
Control engineering – the study of mathematical modeling of the dynamic behavior of systems and designing them, usually using feedback signals, so that their dynamic behavior is desirable (stable, without large excursions, with minimum error). This applies to the dynamic behavior of aircraft, spacecraft, propulsion systems, and subsystems that exist on aerospace vehicles.
Aircraft structures – design of the physical configuration of the craft to withstand the forces encountered during flight. Aerospace engineering aims to keep structures lightweight.
Materials science – related to structures, aerospace engineering also studies the materials of which the aerospace structures are to be built. New materials with very specific properties are invented, or existing ones are modified to improve their performance.
Solid mechanics – Closely related to material science is solid mechanics which deals with stress and strain analysis of the components of the vehicle. Nowadays there are several Finite Element programs such as MSC Patran/Nastran which aid engineers in the analytical process.
Aeroelasticity – the interaction of aerodynamic forces and structural flexibility, potentially causing flutter, divergence, etc.
Avionics – the design and programming of computer systems on board an aircraft or spacecraft and the simulation of systems.
Software – the specification, design, development, test, and implementation of computer software for aerospace applications, including flight software, ground control software, test & evaluation software, etc.
Risk and reliability – the study of risk and reliability assessment techniques and the mathematics involved in the quantitative methods.
Noise control – the study of the mechanics of sound transfer.
Flight test – designing and executing flight test programs in order to gather and analyze performance and handling qualities data in order to determine if an aircraft meets its design and performance goals and certification requirements.
The basis of most of these elements lies in theoretical mathematics, such as fluid dynamics for aerodynamics or the equations of motion for flight dynamics. There is also a large empirical component. Historically, this empirical component was derived from testing of scale models and prototypes, either in wind tunnels or in the free atmosphere. More recently, advances in computing have enabled the use of computational fluid dynamics to simulate the behavior of fluid, reducing time and expense spent on wind-tunnel testing.
Additionally, aerospace engineering addresses the integration of all components that constitute an aerospace vehicle (subsystems including power, aerospace bearings, communications, thermal control, life support, etc.) and its life cycle (design, temperature, pressure, radiation, velocity, lifetime).
Aerospace engineering degrees
Aerospace engineering may be studied at the advanced diploma, bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. levels in aerospace engineering departments at many universities, and in mechanical engineering departments at others. A few departments offer degrees in space-focused astronautical engineering. The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands offers one of the top European aerospace educational and research platforms, while the programs of the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rutgers University, and University of Southern California are examples of American schools. In 2009, U.S. News & World Report ranked the undergraduate aerospace engineering programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan as the top three best programs at doctorate granting universities in the United States. The other programs in the top ten were Purdue University, California Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, University of Illinois, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Tech in that order. The magazine also rates Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the United States Air Force Academy, and the United States Naval Academy as the premier aerospace engineering programs at universities that do not grant doctorate degrees. University of Kansas School of Engineering has earned more first and second place AIAA awards than any other academic institution in the world in the 42-year history of the competition. Wichita State University is renowned for its Aerospace Engineering program and also has the third highest research budget for Aerospace Engineering in the United States.
United States
Please note - ABET stands for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
Utah State University (ABET)
Air Force Institute of Technology (ABET)
University of Alabama in Huntsville (ABET)
University of Alabama (ABET)
Arizona State University (ABET)
University of Arizona (ABET)
Auburn University (ABET)
Boston University (ABET)
California Institute of Technology
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (ABET)
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (ABET)
California State University, Long Beach (ABET)
University of California, Davis (ABET)
University of California, Irvine (ABET)
University of California, Los Angeles (ABET)
University of California, San Diego (ABET)
Case Western Reserve University (ABET)
University of Central Florida (ABET)
University of Cincinnati (ABET)
Clarkson University (ABET)
University of Colorado at Boulder (ABET)
Daniel Webster College (ABET)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach campus (ABET)
Prescott campus (ABET)
Florida Institute of Technology (ABET)
University of Florida (ABET)
Georgia Institute of Technology (ABET)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ABET)
Illinois Institute of Technology (ABET)
Iowa State University (ABET)
University of Kansas (ABET)
School of Aeronautical Science at LeTourneau University (ABET)
University of Maryland, College Park (ABET)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ABET)
University of Miami (ABET)
University of Michigan (ABET)
University of Minnesota (ABET)
Mississippi State University (ABET)
Missouri University of Science and Technology (ABET)
Naval Postgraduate School (ABET)
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (ABET)
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (ABET)
North Carolina State University (ABET)
Northrop University (ABET)
University of Notre Dame (ABET)
Ohio State University (ABET)
Oklahoma State University (ABET)
University of Oklahoma (ABET)
The Pennsylvania State University (ABET)
Princeton University (ABET)
Purdue University (ABET)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (ABET)
Rutgers University (ABET)
Saint Louis University (ABET)
San Diego State University (ABET)
San Jose State University (ABET)
University of Southern California (ABET)
Stanford University
Syracuse University (ABET)
University of Tennessee at Knoxville (ABET)
University of Tennessee Space Institute
Texas A&M University (ABET)
University of Texas at Arlington (ABET)
University of Texas at Austin (ABET)
Tuskegee University (ABET)
United States Air Force Academy (ABET)
United States Naval Academy (ABET)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (ABET)
University of Virginia (ABET)
University of Washington (ABET)
West Virginia University (ABET)
Western Michigan University (ABET)
Whobear's Aeronautical Studies and Space Training Institute (ABET)
Wichita State University (ABET)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (ABET)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ABET)
Aerospace (or aeronautical) engineering can be studied at the advanced diploma, bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. levels in aerospace engineering departments at many U.S. universities, and in mechanical engineering departments at others. A few departments offer degrees in space-focused astronautical engineering. The programs of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rutgers University are two such examples. U.S. News & World Report ranks the aerospace engineering programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan within the top three best programs for doctorate granting universities. However, other top programs within the ten best in the United States include those of Stanford University, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University and the University of Illinois. The magazine also rates Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and United States Air Force Academy as the premier aerospace engineering programs at universities that do not grant doctorate degrees.