Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development

of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping

branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering.

What They Do
Aerospace engineers design aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles. In addition, they test
prototypes to make sure that they function according to design.

Duties
Aerospace engineers typically do the following:

Direct and coordinate the design, manufacture, and testing of aircraft and aerospace products

Assess proposals for projects to determine if they are technically and financially feasible

Determine if proposed projects will result in safe aircraft and parts

Evaluate designs to see that the products meet engineering principles, customer requirements, and
environmental challenges

Develop acceptance criteria for design methods, quality standards, sustainment after delivery, and completion
dates

Ensure that projects meet quality standards

Inspect malfunctioning or damaged products to identify sources of problems and possible solutions

Aerospace engineers may develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and spacecraft. They often
specialize in areas such as aerodynamic fluid flow; structural design; guidance, navigation, and control; instrumentation
and communication; robotics; and propulsion and combustion.
Aerospace engineers can specialize in designing different types of aerospace products, such as commercial and military
airplanes and helicopters; remotely piloted aircraft and rotorcraft; spacecraft, including launch vehicles and satellites;
and military missiles and rockets.
Aerospace engineers often become experts in one or more related fields: aerodynamics, thermodynamics, 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.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

Aerospace engineers are not required to be licensed at the entry level. More experienced aerospace engineers, who
assume more responsibility, usually earn the Professional Engineer (PE) license. Licensure generally requires the
following:

Areas of expertise: The minimum education required for this position is a bachelors degree in
aerospace engineering or a related subject from an accredited college or university. To do research, a
Ph.D. is highly desired for this position. Aerodynamics: design aerospace craft with the best air fl ow
Structures: design and build new constructions such as a space station Propulsion: design and develop

systems that drive or propel an aerospace craft Astrodynamics: design spacecraft that can move and
function in a space environment

A degree from an engineering program accredited by ABET

A passing score on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam

Relevant work experience

Pay Salary

The median annual wage for aerospace engineers was $103,720 in May 2012. The median wage is the wage at which half of the

workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $65,450,
and the top 10 percent earned more than $149,120.
In May 2012, the median annual wages for aerospace engineers in the top five industries in which these engineers worked were
as follows:
Federal government

$110,860

Scientific research and development services

109,740

Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and

control instruments manufacturing

107,510

Architectural, engineering, and related services

102,720

Aerospace product and parts manufacturing

97,560

APPLICATIONS
Measuring distances to objects within our Galaxy is not always a straightforward task we cannot
simply stretch out a measuring tape between two objects and read off the distance. Instead, a number
of techniques have been developed that enable us to measure distances to stars without needing to
leave the Solar System. One such method is trigonometric parallax, which depends on the apparent
motion of nearby stars compared to more distant stars, using observations made six months apart.
Trigonometric Parallax
Measuring distances to objects within our Galaxy is not always a straightforward task we cannot
simply stretch out a measuring tape between two objects and read off the distance. Instead, a number
of techniques have been developed that enable us to measure distances to stars without needing to
leave the Solar System. One such method is trigonometric parallax, which depends on the apparent
motion of nearby stars compared to more distant stars, using observations made six months apart.
A nearby object viewed from two different positions will appear to move with respect to a more distant
background. This change is called parallax. A simple demonstration is to hold your finger up in front of
your face and look at it with your left eye closed and then your right eye. The position of your finger will
appear move compared to more distant objects.
By measuring the amount of the shift of the objects position (relative to a fixed background, such as
the very distant stars) with observations made from the ends of a known baseline, the distance to the
object can be calculated.
A conveniently long baseline for measuring the parallax of stars (stellar parallax) is the diameter of the
Earths orbit, where observations are made 6 months apart. The definition of the parallax angle may be
determined from the diagram below:

The position of a foreground star is measured when the Earth is at position A. 6 months later, the Earth
has moved around the Sun to position B this provides a baseline of 2AU. Compared to the more
distant fixed stars, the foreground star has moved on the sky by an angle, 2p.
Question: If the pilot planned the approach to begin 5nm (a typical
distance for an ILS) from the end of the runway, at what altitude
(AFE) should the aircraft be when intercepting the final approach?

1nm = 6,076.1 feet

5nm = 6076.1 x 5 = 30,380.5 feet
30,380.5 x 3 tan = 1,592 feet AFE

Answer: The pilot should maneuver

the aircraft so as to turn final approach
5nm from the runway at an altitude of
1,592 feet AFE.

Two images of a nearby star taken with the Earth at positions A and B in the diagram above. Note how
the orange star moves from the right to the left compared to the more distant fixed stars.
If the parallax angle, p, is measured in arcseconds (arcsec), then the distance to the star, d in parsecs
(pc) is given by:

It is important to note that in this example we assume that both the Sun and star are not moving with
a transverse velocity with respect to each other. If they were this would complicate the picture as
presented here. In practice stars with significant proper motions require at least three epochs of
observation to accurately separate their proper motions from their parallax. Stars that are members of
binaries further complicate the picture.
The only star with a parallax greater than 1 arcsec as seen from the Earth is the Sun all other known
stars are at distances greater than 1 pc and parallax angles less than 1 arcsec. When measuring the
parallax of a star, it is important to account for the stars proper motion, and the parallax of any of the
fixed stars used as references.
Over a 4 year period from 1989 to 1993, the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission measured the
trigonometric parallax of nearly 120,000 stars with an accuracy of 0.002 arcsec. The GAIA mission, to
be launched in 2010, will be able to measure parallaxes to an accuracy of 10-6 arcsec, allowing
distances to be determined for more than 200 million stars.

Question: In order to fly the standard 3 approach, how long should the final

approach segment be if the pilot plans to turn final at 500 feet AFE?

Ifwebeginourfinalapproach500feetAFE,wecancomputethelengthofourfinal
o

approach(DistanceX)bydividingouraltitude(500feetAFE)bythetangentof3.So,
o
500feet/tan3=9,541feet.
o

500feet

tan3=,thusx

x=

500feet

tan

Answer:9,540.6feet.