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What's a day in the life of an aerospace engineer like?

Aeronautical or astronautical, it doesn't matter. I'm interested in pursuing a major in aerospace engineering, but I want to get a scope of what applying it to a career is like.

#engineering #aerospace-engineering

Thank you comment icon Hey ..this is Karthik .I had completed masters degree in aerospace engineering . To pursue major Aerospace engg You have to good in math and physics . Mostly focus on real time projects . I used to work hard to good grades . Just focus you will succeed .. if u need help let me know Karthik

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Vincenzo’s Answer

Depends on what you choose to do. Aerospace Engineering is a wide area. We can divide it in three main fields, propulsion, structures and aerodynamic. What is the best one? It's only on what you like more. I am a structural aerospace engineer and I use try every day to use my creativity for innovation. I do research on what I can use to solve some problem in a fast and accurate way. I do calculate to look if a structure is safe or not under given loads. Usually low I spend 8 hours at my office. The rest of the day I read a lot, since I like it, run, gym, stay with my lover. Seems there is not always the time to do everything but you can do that!

Thank you comment icon Way to go! This addresses passion and interest Arowoduye Feranmi
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Mack’s Answer

Aerospace Engineering is a very broad field. There are many roles within the field that fit the individual's strengths, goals, personality and aspirations. I can provide you my current experience as an engineer. Through out my career, I have always been interested in exploring new horizons within the field and my role has changed numerous times as I have always been ambitious to be part of the next big thing. Currently I am a Project Engineer for a company that is part of the Aviation Industry. A day in the life of a project engineer involves multi tasking to see projects through. Most big to mid-size companies take on customer requested engineering services in the form of a project or program. The program manager or project engineer (Technical Program Manager) plays a key role in managing the program from kick off to close. During a typical day I am involved in discussing progress with engineers who directly contribute to the project. I ensure their tasks are on track and mitigate where I can to prevent delays. I may facilitate where I can to help engineers finish tasks/deliverables. A typical day can also include reporting to upper management or executive leadership team on project progress and risks or issues. There is also plenty of collaboration with supply chain to ensure parts and material are on track to meet production demands. One more important part of my roles is working with accounts management and or sales team to ensure proper engineering input into quotes and or proposals provided to customers in response to RFQ (request for quote), contracts and/or project bids.
There are many functions for the project engineer role that require a strong background in engineering with the ability to lead several teams in support of program needs. It requires lots of cross-functional collaborate work for which the PE is the key member to bring it all together.
I hope this helps provide some insight into the typical day for this particular role. I would be happy to provide more insight or answer any specific questions you may have. I recommend you pursue a role within this very rewarding industry. The fact that you are considering this path already says a lot about the challenges that you are willing to face. Good luck!
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Uma’s Answer

In my point of view Aerospace Engineering refers to learning and discovering new facts of space science.

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Brianna’s Answer

I'm a practicing aerospace engineer, about 10 years experience. In that time, I've worked on multiple satellite programs, as well as spent a few years in the automotive industry, software development, and even some time on a civil engineering project in grad school. My days typically tend to be some mix of solitary work in my office, meetings with colleagues, and doing testing work on site either alone or in a group. Sometimes I will be writing a paper on my work or research, or traveling to a conference to present it to my colleagues. Sometimes I will be reading papers describing a satellite's operational premise and capabilities, and working with colleagues to determine if the builders have taken every necessary consideration into account when creating their plan. Other times I will be on site with colleagues conducting tests on spacecraft to make sure that everything will work properly once the spacecraft is launched and in orbit. One memorable field trip involved suiting up in cold weather gear for days on a coal barge in the Chicago Shipping Canal, where we literally banged coal barges into each other in electrically charged water to measure the voltage discharge created at the collision (look up the Asian Carp in the Mississippi river, and the Army Corps of Engineers voltage barrier). How you spend your average day as an engineer will vary a lot based on your specialty (planes, rockets, satellites, or something more exotic/abstract), but you can usually count on your days being a combination of reading/writing technical documents, meetings with colleagues, working out various technical concepts, performing testing/analysis/experiment work onsite, or writing computer code (nearly all engineers have to know at least some programming to get their math done).

If you'd like to be an engineer, definitely you need to have your math and physics down cold. Don't worry if they don't come naturally to you - engineers have to go far enough in these subjects that nearly everyone runs out of natural ability to easily comprehend the material at some point. The important thing is to learn how to persevere. Some other skill sets that are valuable which they don't mention as much to people your age are reading comprehension, writing ability, communications skills, and EQ (emotional intelligence). These skills are as important as raw technical ability and tend to be neglected by many young engineers, so you will be a step ahead of the game if you work on acquiring them.

Finally, I would say that the most important thing to know is that in this field, you will get out of college but you'll never get out of learning. The purpose of university is really just to put the basics in your head and show a potential employer that you are capable of learning. The jobs you're on will always require you to be learning something new. If this appeals to you, then you will make a great engineer.
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Catherine’s Answer

Hopefully from the answers you can see how broad the subject is. There are so many applications to Aerospace Engineering that no single answer will be the same. I studied Aerospace and then joined the Air Force which has given me a very diverse career. Throughout my 11 years in the Air Force a day in my life could be:

Operations role:

  • Morning technical brief - brief from technicians on the aircraft states (for 19 jets)
  • Morning pilot brief - Brief from aircrew on flying program for the day and priorities. I would then brief them on the available aircraft and the forecast for maintenance.
  • Identifying the risks of maintenance on jet aircraft loaded with weapons. Performing risk assessments to authorize maintenance on armed aircraft and communicating with aircrew and operations staff to ensure the back-up aircraft could maintain readiness while the maintenance was performed.
  • Ensuring resources - manpower, tools, test equipment, procedures were available to maintain the aircraft.
  • Leading my team through their own development. Giving them tasks to research and improve aircraft maintenance procedures .
  • Reporting and investigating root cause of maintenance or air safety occurrences (e.g. fire in avionics bay). Communicating issues to the relevant teams to understand if there is a problem that affects all aircraft.
  • Problem solving between different subject matter experts - bring my team together to analyze, identify and rectify root cause of persistent faults.
  • Shift handover - handover brief to night shift on aircraft state, occurrences from the day and priorities.

Delivery team / project management role:

  • Work with aircrew, engineers and design team to understand areas for reliability and capability improvements. Bring people together to understand problems and identify requirements going forward.
  • Analyze root cause of air safety occurrences (e.g. engine shut-down in flight) to understand the overall risk and mitigate it from happening in future - through modification / procedural / training / resource etc.
  • Write maintenance policy and procedures for fault diagnosis - to provide improvements in reliability.
  • Lead multiple projects through concept to delivery.



Catherine recommends the following next steps:

Review a number of answers and then delve into a particular area that you like the sound of to understand the variety of applications.
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Maria’s Answer

I am a Mechanical Engineer, Aviation Manager, and have a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Before I returned to college I was Professional Pilot and Flight Instructor. I am a member of AOPA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Aircraft Owner and Pilot Association.
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Consuelo’s Answer

I work for gov, and I think that may be very different than industry (depending on the team) but my day to day is pretty simple. I go to work and have a set list of tasks. I then go to meetings, take classes, work on my tasks, and do some paperwork. The field of aerospace engineering is so broad... you can really do any and everything within it. I have friends that do software, I do research/dev, and I have a friend devloping materials. The tasks I find not as difficult as college assignments, but still interesting! I specifically word a lot with CAD and 3D printing. I find the deadlines CAN be really close, but usually are pretty lenient which makes it a lot less stressful than school. I think it's a great choice as a career and gives you a lot of opportunity to grow and learn about a lot of different areas! :) 

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Zachary’s Answer

I think that it would be interesting to design aircraft, but doing so is challenging and tedious. An engineer would have to do a lot of calculations and testing to make sure that an aircraft design works.

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Michael’s Answer

Look for the schools that have programs. I received my Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1989. I got a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I went to work in the automotive industry in fuel economy simulation. Some other people I work with with this degree work in the GM wind tunnel. The local company in Detroit in aerospace industry you may want to contact is Williams International. Most aerospace industry jobs are outside of Michigan. You should be good in math and science and enjoy working with these. Study calculus and advanced math along with physics. Get internship experiences. Ask me any more questions.

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Arowoduye’s Answer

The life of an aerospace engineer is quite pattern and simple.
This is determined by what area of aerospace you want to delve into because of you passion.
One thing that would be constant in the life of an engineer is design and maintenance.
You have to be a lover of math, physics and a course related programming language.
You also must be able to boldly go where no one had gone before

You have to possess certain skills like:
Analytical and problem solving
Critical thinking
Communication.
Presentation
Good attitude under pressure
Flexibility and ability to learn always.

You need good technical background, good use of CAD software: OpenVSP, Solidworks, ADS, Fusion 360, etc

And remember you life would be centered on solving problems, design and maintenance.

Go where no one has gone!
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Alan’s Answer

As an aerospace engineering graduate there are many different opportunities. I found the education only provides the base knowledge that leads to a lot of learning the details as you go. I am a mechanical engineer working for aerospace companies. I started with aircraft nacelles, performing thermal analysis before pc’s. This was a lot more tedious than today’s systems, but I really learned more about thermal dynamics than I got in school. I was not great at it in school, but got very good and respected when I made cost saving suggestions that worked. I moved into testing as I prefer the hands on hardware life over the computer modeling. I work with the analysts who model spacecraft for the last 20 years. The engineers work with the Initial design concepts, build models and analyze details on the stresses from thermal, flight and pressure. There is a lot of time on the computer along with hours with the team and some with the customers. Once the spacecraft is built, there are many tests to verify the predictions made by the engineers. This is a very interesting and challenging career choice that has always kept me employed. Enjoy yours.
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Sybil’s Answer

If you are hired as an Aerospace Engineer, you will either be designing the aircraft structures (i.e. fuselage, wings, ECS System, etc.), or you will perform structural analysis on those bodies.
A perk is you usually get to visit hangars and physically see the aircraft you work on.

You can also work in the Aerospace Industry in other fields of Engineering, such as Electrical, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Materical science, and more. Depends where your interests lie. Usually Aerospace companies are large enough where you can wander between job roles easily to try different areas out.
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Sneha’s Answer

aerospace engineering is developing yourself in the aerospace industry day by day in the field of design, structures and manufacturing.

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Jack’s Answer

Hi <span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);">Aishwarya, I studied Aerospace Engineering at San Jose State University. The program there is pretty good. The department is pretty small so you can expect a close relationship with your classmates and the professor too. They teach you a wide range of the basics of aerospace engineering from aerodynamics to CAD. Now working in the industry after college, it is very hard in the bay area to get into the field since there are not as many opportunities. However, there are still big ones here like Lockheed and SSL. I recommend getting an internship during school, because that will help you </span>acquire<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);"> full time job. If you are very interested in general on how airplane works or fluid works I recommend pursing the education and career. </span>

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Mohammad Moeid’s Answer

A professional aerospace engineer usually ends up working in a few major areas; vehicle design, structural analysis, aerodynamics, thermal analysis or flight control system design. I am personally from the structural end of the spectrum and in my job, I worked with many engineers from different subsection of structural analysis to ensure the designs were safe. We typically use software to simulate how the structure will behave under various operational loadings and try to make sure things don't break.
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Mohamed’s Answer

I am interest about aerospace and maintenance engineering

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Zak’s Answer

Aerospace in my experience has been very demanding. You are working on very challenging problems but working in public or private are very different. At NASA you might be working on a small problem of optimizing the bell of a heatshield or JPL you might be designing a Mars Rover or at SpaceX you might be in charge of making a collection of parts. You will be working 40 hours a week at NASA, 40-50 at a company like blue origin, and 50-70 at somewhere like SpaceX. But the 70-80 hour work weeks at SpaceX are not long - after working 10-12 hours a day Monday - Saturday, I missed work on Sunday my day off. The great challenges yield really great excitement