Engineering

[NOS2006]

Does anybody know anything about Aerospace Engineering? There are a few guys at my work (auto engineers) who are telling me to try to get into the aerospace industry once I'm done with college. How do you guys feel about that? Do you know anything about that industry to lend me information on?

[z28luvr01]

No personal knowledge, but I did have a friend who went through the AE program at my college and is now working for NASA. It's probably the hardest of all the engineering disciplines, judging by his courseload. Lots of calculus, chemistry, and physics, a lot more than me and my lowly CS degree. Also, I would think the aerospace industry might be pretty hard to get into. Off the top of my head, your options are NASA, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Sikorsky, and maybe a couple of others. Of course there's also the armed forces as a wildcard. However, if you do get in, you're pretty well set - good aerospace engineers are hard to come by.

[NOS2006]

Well, I'm an ME major and I have to take up to Calc III plus a few other high-level math classes, two chem classes, two physics classes, and other ME stuff.

[Northstar]

I'd say the pre-requisites for most engineering majors are similar. I think aerospace would be cool, but I think they probably hire MEs to make the engines and such, too. If you wanted to work with planes, you could probably do it with an ME degree, and if you didn't get the job you'd have plenty of other options. If you were an AE and didn't get the job, you might have trouble getting one that wasn't in the aerospace industry.

[regfootball]

depends. which career will be outsourced to a foreign country first? you might want to think about that. the way its going.

[NOS2006]

depends. which career will be outsourced to a foreign country first? you might want to think about that. the way its going.

A lot of the aerospace industry is government work, paid by tax dollars...

[bobo]

Around 20 years ago, back when the Cold War was ending and the U.S. government was cutting back on defense, there were a lot of job cuts in the aerospace industry. The L.A. economy took a hit because of this.

[balthazar]

My father worked for 40 years for the DOD as an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Trenton. Last aircraft he worked on was the F-22 Raptor, before retiring.

[thegriffon]

No personal knowledge, but I did have a friend who went through the AE program at my college and is now working for NASA. It's probably the hardest of all the engineering disciplines, judging by his courseload. Lots of calculus, chemistry, and physics, a lot more than me and my lowly CS degree. Also, I would think the aerospace industry might be pretty hard to get into. Off the top of my head, your options are NASA, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Sikorsky, and maybe a couple of others. Of course there's also the armed forces as a wildcard. However, if you do get in, you're pretty well set - good aerospace engineers are hard to come by.

Textron (Cessna, Bell, Lycoming), Hawker Beechcraft, BAe, EADS, United Technologies (Sikorsky, Hamilton Standard, Pratt &Whitney), an unlimited number of small experimental builders, General Atomics etc..

The SAE is the professional association for both Automotive and Aeronautical engineers in the US, so check out the Aeronautical section of their site.

The LA economy also took a hit because it was too expensive to stay based in CA. That and Seattle-based Boeing took over LA-based (McDonnell) Douglas.

[thegriffon]

depends. which career will be outsourced to a foreign country first? you might want to think about that. the way its going.

Aerospace is already outsourced as much as it can be, simply because it costs too much for one company to do a major project by itself. Further outsourcing is restricted by security concerns.

[regfootball]

you say that now.

the country is going to hell and a hand basket. simple call center jobs are already over in india. its only a matter of time before we are all flipping burgers.

[NOS2006]

you say that now.

the country is going to hell and a hand basket. simple call center jobs are already over in india. its only a matter of time before we are all flipping burgers.

Did you see their Tatamobile? That's about the extent of the jobs they seem to be able to handle lol.