What comes to mind when you think about a career as an aerospace engineer? You know the broad strokes because you’ve imagined playing an integral part in designing, developing, and testing aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles. You’ve imagined having a hand in sending cutting edge technologies from the ground, through the sky, and into outer space.
Because you’ve come this far, you know the field of aerospace engineering calls for highly competent people with a potent mix of creativity, precision, and advanced scientific know-how.
Sure, the work you do might rise to impossible heights or reach the deepest parts of space, but what does an aerospace engineer do, really? You’ve got your eye on the sky, now let’s talk about a day in the life of an aerospace engineer.
What Does an Aerospace Engineer Do?
These are the basics of a career in aerospace engineering:
- An aerospace engineer designs, develops, and tests just about everything that flies through air and space, including aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles.
- Aerospace engineers often work full-time (some working more than 40 hours per week) in an office setting, often on a computer.
- To become an aerospace engineer and work in the field, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree (or higher) in aerospace engineering, or in a related engineering field or applicable science like physics or mathematics.
- Aerospace engineers will often possess security clearance because of work on projects related to national defense.
A Typical Day in the Life of an Aerospace Engineer
While the work done may vary, a typical could include:
Mornings in the office: As in any dynamic and always-advancing field, you’ll need to make time to keep up with industry news, engineering trends, and conventional wisdom. Industry journals and scientific newsletters are required reading for anyone who wants to be on the cutting edge and stay there.
Brainstorms before lunch: Most days will involve a review of on-going projects, meeting with colleagues to exchange notes and ideas, and brainstorming fixes to that new problem that’s just cropped up. You might even be able to squeeze in time to write up notes or reports and prepare for what comes next. And all before 1:00!
Early afternoons in the lab: In aerospace engineering, ideas and their real-world applications are the name of the game. A day in the life of an aerospace engineer inevitably calls for hunkering down in the lab to run simulations and crunch the data. The fine-tuning never stops, so there will probably be a need to run some tests with scale models or construct some real-world tests. Not every aerospace engineer works in a lab, but if you intend to write code, run tests, or debug systems, you’ll probably find yourself in a lab at some time or another.
Field tests, site inspections, and more: What does an aerospace engineer do that isn’t in an office or a lab? A day in the life of an aerospace engineer often calls for field work and travel. This could mean scouting test sites or overseeing existing ones. An afternoon spent carrying out experiments or large-scale tests often means visiting manufacturing or testing facilities. Depending on their role or field of expertise, you’ll also find aerospace engineers on the road giving presentations or even sales pitches.
Undergraduate study in aerospace engineering generally provides you with an understanding of the fundamentals around aircraft, spacecraft, rocket, and rotocraft subsystems. An aerospace engineering student will have also acquired knowledge of some aspects of design, manufacturing, and testing.
Because of these specialized and highly applicable knowledge sets, you’ll find aerospace engineers in every part of the engineering process, whether that be design, analysis, integration, testing, deployment, or maintenance.
Ready to Reach for the Stars?
Aerospace engineering is a rapidly growing field and now is a great time to consider leveling up. The employment rate is expected to grow by 6% over the next decade with more than 4,200 aerospace engineer positions opening each year. With the new enthusiasm of colonization in space and making space flights routine for adventurers’, companies like Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Space X, and Virgin Galactica have opened many new opportunities for aerospace engineers.
It’s time to take advantage of this growth, so if you think aerospace engineering is the field for you, McKissock Learning has the CE courses in professional engineering you’ll want. McKissock Learning PDH courses offer a personalized learning experience featuring expert authors and professionals in their fields, instructor assistance, and foundational knowledge in courses approved by state governing boards.
