cAerospace engineering focuses on the understanding, design, and development of aircraft and spacecraft structures and systems. Aerospace engineering began as the study of flight, but has expanded to include space flight and propulsion in addition to aircraft design and aerodynamics of a variety of structures. Aerospace engineering can be considered a subset of mechanical engineering, but has expanded and grown it its own directions allowing it to be considered a major branch of the engineering profession.
Aerospace engineering covers everything from the design of small aircraft to large spacecraft, and many structures in between.
Aerospace Engineering Education
In many colleges and universities, aerospace engineering is a division within the mechanical engineering department.
Students enrolled in an aerospace engineering degree program will begin with a solid base in calculus and physics, move into advanced mechanical topics such as thermodynamics, heat transfer, aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, and depending on the desired specialty within aerospace engineering, move on to courses in propulsion, orbital mechanics, dynamics and control, and system design.