What does an Aerospace Engineer do?

> thermo 1 and 2. I about died.

I *really* struggled with T1. I drew the most hated prof (Simon). For the semester
project, I wrote a program to generate the 4,000 data points he wanted calc'd
and plotted. Everyone else cranked them by calculator. Ugh. I used a curve fitting
libr to plot them on a CalComp plotter. (This was 1975).

The prof (Simon) gave me a zero [0] for the project and a zero [0] overall - for cheating.
He explained that he'd been asking "those computer guys" to do it for five
years and they said, "impossible." So, I must've cheated. I drug "those computer
guys" into the Dept chair's office ... and they explained: "Yep, he did it - the first
student to ever make the CalComp draw." I was excused while they considered my
future. Nobody would talk to me afterwards. I was told that I'd find my fate posted
on the office door at the end of the week.

I was a wreck. When I checked my score, good olde Simon gave me a 100%. I was
astonished. Then he explained that I *must* do T2 & T3 with him, but self-study. I
spent those semesters writing Fortran programs that drew pretty graphs. Two more
100%'s. Whew ...
 
Last edited:
I am a mechanical engineer and work for an oem aircraft manufacturer. Aeronautical engineers at the two aviation companies I have worked for do the same work as the mechanicals. Outside of the aviation companies the ae bs can be somewhat limiting. Something to thing about in a soft economy.
 
In my experience, Aerospace Engineers and Mechanical Engineers can do alot of the same jobs, however, as said, Aerospace is a little more focused. I believe they have almost all the same classes (physics, math, statics, dynamics, maybe control theory, thermodynamics), but, Aerospace has fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, and a couple aircraft classes (stability, design, etc). Mechanical Engineering might have more general machine design (gears, pulleys?), and maybe more advanced control stuff. I have not really seen the Mechanical Engineering course list to say any of that as fact, but thats what I've heard.

As far as what aerospace engineers can do, well, alot.

I work in an external loads group. I look at flight test data, use computer simulations, and basic physics/dynamics knowledge to predict how much load various parts will see in flight.

Examples being, Actuator Loads, Pitch link loads, rotor blade bending moments, shears and moments at a tail boom attachment point, blade motion (flapping, lead and lag, feathering), damper loads, landing gear loads, etc. My group looks at a lot. We determine fatigue loads, which we pass on to a fatigue group or internal loads/stress group.

Aerospace engineers can also work in fatigue. Take loads given by us, and with material properties and dimensions, determine how many hours of flight a part should be good for. Determine various ways to test physical parts and analyze crack growth, and actual part life.

They can also work in an internal loads group. Take loads from various groups, and apply them to a FEM model, and determine stress over the entire aircraft.

A stress group, can take said stresses, and see if various parts can stand up to it.

Aerospace guys can work in rotor dynamics/structural dynamics. Tuning rotor blade frequencies (moving mass around?) to avoid bad resonance and get the blade response they want, and ensuring the cabin has a smooth ride.

There is also handling qualities, control systems (fixed (push pull tubes from pilots to swashplate) and rotating controls (rotating swash plate, and pitch links) in the helicopter world), hydrualics.

There really is alot an aerospace engineer can do, in the aviation world. Not sure how well they would do in the non-aviation job market though.
 
Geico266 said:
Can you guys use a slide rule? Anyone still have one?
Click to expand...

Yessir! I regularly use a Pickett N600-ES.. same slide rule used on the early Apollo space missions. :)
1g5sk.jpg
 
I had a section of one semester as thermodynamics as a freshman... The prof who took that part of class stuttered... So it was:
Thermo, thermo, thermodynam Thermodynam, Ics.

I felt really sorry for him and since there were only 7 of us in class I couldn't skip it so I had to sit on the front row and smile and wait for him to say it each time, agony.
I wanted to tell him, just say thermo and we know the rest but never did. I was only 18 and didn't quite know how to handle it. Made an A though.....
 
My Son is a senior in the EE program here at UT Dallas. Not to get off topic, but I would consider his junior/senior years very different than other engineering programs. Here's a sample and a link to their EE catalog.

Best,

Dave
=================================================

EE 3101 Electrical Network Analysis LaboratoryEE 3102 Signals and Systems LaboratoryEE 3110 Electronic Devices LaboratoryEE 3111 Electronic Circuits LaboratoryEE 3120 Digital Circuits LaboratoryEE 3150 Communications Systems LaboratoryENGR 3300 Advanced Engineering MathematicsEE 3301 Electrical Network AnalysisEE 3302 Signals and SystemsEE 3310 Electronic DevicesEE 3311 Electronic CircuitsEE 3320 Digital CircuitsENGR 3341 Probability Theory and StatisticsEE 3350 Communications SystemsEE 4301 Electromagnetic Engineering IEE 4310 Systems and ControlsEE 4368 RF Circuit Design PrinciplesEE 4388 Senior Design Project IEE 4389Senior Design Project II

http://www.utdallas.edu/student/catalog/ugcurrent/ecs/ee.html
 
TripleZ said:
I was going to write a nice paragraph on what a Aerospace Engineer does.... but unless he stays in an analysis or design engineer role, where traditional number crunching engineering takes place........

Engineers go to meetings, make presentations, get group consensus on decisions.

You need the engineering degree to understand what you are looking at, and to develop product, but few engineers still draw up components or run CFD / FEA / Analyze parts. We have designers for CAD.

Engineers are managers that sift through a load of information and make quick decisions. I do 90% paperwork / meetings, and physically touch parts or run tests the other 10%.




:D

I thought thermodynamics was bad until I took a graduate level compressible fluids course. Shockwave calculations...... :mad2:
Click to expand...

I TOTALLY AGREE! Someone at work once asked me why I became an engineer, my imitate response was "I was duped"

Which required further explanation, In high school I was really good with Math and Science. I SUCKED and hated English and had zero social skills. I barely passed public speaking. I also LOVED my mechanical drafting class. So my Parents, Grandparents, guidance councilor all told me that I should become an engineer. Now all I do all day is talk to people and write reports. My co-worker busted a gut.
Missa
 
Missa said:
I TOTALLY AGREE! Someone at work once asked me why I became an engineer, my imitate response was "I was duped"

Which required further explanation, In high school I was really good with Math and Science. I SUCKED and hated English and had zero social skills. I barely passed public speaking. I also LOVED my mechanical drafting class. So my Parents, Grandparents, guidance councilor all told me that I should become an engineer. Now all I do all day is talk to people and write reports. My co-worker busted a gut.
Missa
Click to expand...

Ain't it the truth.
 

Attachments

  • engineer_workload.jpg
    engineer_workload.jpg
    128.8 KB · Views: 22
Missa said:
I TOTALLY AGREE! Someone at work once asked me why I became an engineer, my imitate response was "I was duped"

Which required further explanation, In high school I was really good with Math and Science. I SUCKED and hated English and had zero social skills. I barely passed public speaking. I also LOVED my mechanical drafting class. So my Parents, Grandparents, guidance councilor all told me that I should become an engineer. Now all I do all day is talk to people and write reports. My co-worker busted a gut.
Missa
Click to expand...

When people ask me what I do I used to reply: go to meetings. Now I tell them that I talk on the phone (and spend money).

Sometimes I long for the days when I actually got to interpet data...
 
TMetzinger said:
Ain't it the truth.
Click to expand...

I'd call that the inefficient engineering workload. I usually skip all the explanations and say: "Here's what we're gonna do..."

Getting people moving and keeping them moving is the key. Don't let'em sit and talk about what-ifs and coulda, woulda, shoulda's. They'll just drink all the coffee and eat all the donuts and nothing ever happens.
 
As an aerospace engineer, most of what I do is software, specifically modeling and simulation. I've worked for an airline and an aircraft manufacturer with full-motion simulators, and now I'm working on spacecraft software. What you can do with a aerospace degree can vary based on your interests. I really enjoy the software part of aerospace but I know other people who cannot stand to stare at code all day -- to each their own. :)
 
Geico266 said:
Back in the day you were judged by your peers by the amount of stuff in your pocket protector. :rolleyes:

Can you guys use a slide rule? Anyone still have one?
Click to expand...


I went through college, EE Technology with a slide rule. I still have it, but haven't used it since I ran across it when cleaning out an old desk. My son was about 15 at the time and was/is a GREAT mathemetician. I went and showed it to him. He looked at it in amazement.

I multiplied a couple of numbers or something and he picked up a calculator and punched in the problem. He then looked up in amazement and said "it's CORRECT!"
 
TMetzinger said:
I'm a federal contractor. I'm not allowed to take any independent action.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, can any system achieve nothing better than American bureaucracy? Our tax dollars at work...
 
I would have to say that my 36 year ride as an engineer was a pretty good one. Yea, there were some, ah... suboptimal... assignments along the way, but overall it's been pretty good.
 
They've been giving me what I call "undeserved" Engineering titles for years.

Field Service Engineer (I've always jokingly called this the "Appeasement Engineer" with a tip o' the hat to the early BOFH short stories), Product Support Engineer, Lead Technical Service Engineer, Site Engineer, Linux Engineer.

Add "Junior" and "Senior" to some of those depending on salary and how long I'd been doing it.

"Senior" apparently means my hair is grayer and I've seen more dumb things done than I had at "Junior". ;)

What I really do is say, "While I know you learned that at Software Engineering school, I can tell you exactly how that approach will fail in the real world... Because I've seen it. Here, let me show you." ... Typically to new Java coders and non-hardware types who write their code to trust networks. Sometimes to hardware types who forget things like in-rush current in power distribution design. Etc etc etc.

Operational Computer Systems "Engineering" is not something most degreed Engineers will lower themselves to doing. (No offense to any of you guys who are Engineers.) Done right, it's rarely exciting. It's also rarely done right. ;)

Sometimes they just call you an Engineer because there's no good title for "Guy who's deployed a lot of crap and can explain it in English, make Powerpoint slides about it, and also do the work after ordering the stuff." ;)

More rigid places might give me an "Analyst" title if they have rules against titling non-PE's as "Engineer". I'm cool with that.

The longer the title in tech, usually the lower the pay. Call me whatever you like, here's my salary requirements. ;)

I always wanted "Internet Systems Janitor or Janitorial Trainer" on my business card. Seemed more accurate. :)

This week's "fun" so far... Shutting down the entire set of core Enterprise systems to add massive new disk space to the central DB server, patching and testing various Production systems to the latest releases from our upstream software vendor, and loading two new machines which will be my project to automate patching, loading, and configuration of all the Linux toys soon. Test new logging and auditing software with the Security department and explain that it eats 50% more resources than the last version did, and remind them their budget for the project didn't include buying me more CPU or RAM, so some systems simply will not get this software until I prove it doesn't harm Production. (Don't like it, pony up for bigger servers kids!) And helping a non-admin who for some reason handles my machines in Canada... set up the OS to recognize a replacement motherboard after HP threw up their hands and started shotgunning parts into my server that locks up weekly up there. Plus setting up new security groups in LDAP, adding users, and ... meetings. And other stuff...

Most of the above was sometime after 1AM most days this week.

It ain't glamorous but it pays the bills!

Point is. Often someone's called "Engineer" who has no business trying to calculate things or having taken Thermodynamics. They just built stuff for so long there's no other title that fits. ;)
 
I had a mechanic that went to Wichita State while working for me. He is now working as an engineer for Spirit while he completes grad school at Wichita State.

My brother worked about 25 years for Beechcraft starting as a structural engineer after graduating with an Aerospace engineering technology degree from Okla. state. I'm never sure what he worked on, but i do remember the Skipper, Duchess, and 1900 in the experimental stages. It was so amazing to look through the old projects sitting outside like the t-tailed Bonanza, pure jet King-Air, and the pure jet T-34. He moved up in the company doing many jobs. They had him typed in many planes and flew the Starship. I never could get a straight answer from him about what he was doing before he left for Garmin. When asked my brother always told me that he was the Beechcraft president.

What's funny, he started off as a pretty good A&P before school. After Okla. State my father said he couldn't turn a screw.
 
If you are an engineer in aerospace and do not take your credentials past a bachelors degree, you may very well end up in the aerospace industry managing aircraft configuration changes.

If you wind up at a passenger airline, competition in the industry keeps pressure on management to keep all salaries (but executive salaries) low.

The engineering division in an airline is a technical division in a non-technology company. It also happens that a lot of engineers can make a living but cannot climb without a MBA.

There are good engineering jobs, but you have got to do more than the minimum checklist for the merit badge.

Having said that, this has probably always been true for any industry at any time in history.
 
"Sounds like a cool job" is hardly the criteria I would need to encourage him on spending, probably well into the six figures, to find out.

John
 
They're underpaid for what they do yet a dime a dozen.

My high school had a couple teachers from India and the Philippines, all with no less than two degrees. My math teacher was has a MBA and BS in aerospace engineering from his country. He worked at NASA as an intern but when he got his degrees converted (he also has an AS in Oceanography) the only people that would hire him were the school system and McDonald's (as an assistant manager temporarily until he got more experience). He told us that we need to work hard (here) because back home (India) engineers actually wait on the street corner outside of firms for work and a BS/BA here shouldn't be our goal and simply won't cut it in a global economy.

Biology teacher was from the Philippines with a MS in electrical and a BS in mechanical engineering. Came here and got a degree in Fire Science. He had a job with AVIC in china and then ABB but left both because he hated engineering. I find it ironic...two degrees in it and once you got the job you hated it!

They both enjoyed the coursework though. Neither could tell you what exactly a 172 or Boeing 727 was, doesn't matter I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top