Aerospace engineers design, develop, test, and help manufacture commercial and military aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft. They develop new technologies in commercial aviation, defense systems, and space exploration, often specializing in areas like structural design, guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or production methods. They also may specialize in one type of aerospace product, such as commercial transports, helicopters, spacecraft, or rockets. Aerospace engineers may be experts in aerodynamics, propulsion, thermodynamics, structures, celestial mechanics, acoustics, or guidance and control systems.
An aerospace engineer studies technical specifications for the wing of a commercial jet.
Aerospace engineers held about 66,000 jobs in 1992. Almost 55 percent were in the aircraft and parts and guided missile and space vehicle manufacturing industries. Federal Government agencies, primarily the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, provided more than 1 out of 10 jobs. Business services, engineering and architectural services, research and testing services, and communications equipment manufacturing firms accounted for most of the remainder.
California, Washington, and Texas, States with large aerospace manufacturers, have the most aerospace engineers.
Those seeking employment as aerospace engineers are likely to face keen competition because the number of job opportunities is expected to be significantly fewer than the relatively large pool of graduates. Defense Department expenditures for military aircraft, missiles, and other aerospace systems are declining. Growth in the civilian sector, which needs to replace the present fleet of airliners with quieter and more fuel-efficient aircraft, is projected to be much slower than previously anticipated due to the financial problems of airlines. Consequently, employment of aerospace engineers is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through the year 2005. Future growth of employment in this field could also be limited because a higher proportion of engineers in aerospace manufacturing may come from the materials, mechanical, or electrical engineering fields. Most job openings will result from the need to replace aerospace engineers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.
Because a large proportion of aerospace engineering jobs are defense related, unexpected cancellation of a defense contract and other defense expenditure cutbacks can result in layoffs of aerospace engineers.
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Reprinted with Permission of U. S. Department of Labor