Posted on 2 January, 2012
The field of aerospace engineering offers diverse career possibilities for aspiring engineers. The main job duty of these engineers is to design and supervise the entire procedure of developing a wide range of aircraft, missile and spacecraft. Owing to an array of vehicles including air-borne and earth-bound, these engineers can also choose to specialize in the testing, designing and development of a specific vehicle such as helicopters, rockets, passenger planes etc. To become an aerospace engineer, it is essential to know the job responsibilities of these professionals, how to get adequate educational qualification and the career prospects in this field. Job ResponsibilitiesBroadly speaking, aerospace engineering can be categorized into aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. The former category involves designing, development and testing of a range of aircraft. On the other hand, astronautical engineering includes designing and building spacecraft. However, a greater number of these engineers are employed in the aircraft industry. These professionals work both in private sector and with government agencies. Aerospace engineers are also employed with companies that are run by the government on a contractual basis. In addition, there are research and development companies, consulting firms and commercial airlines companies that employ these engineers. While working on a design and development project, engineers work in close contact with multiple other experts and specialists associated with the project. Physicists and metallurgists are other professionals these engineers work closely with. Technically, aerospace engineers can specialize in a specific area of development. Some of these engineers specialize in guidance and control system. Some engineers choose to specialize in new framework design. Other key areas for specialization in this field of engineering include fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, propulsion, acoustics, celestial mechanics etc. Educational Qualification & TrainingThe minimum education requirement to kick start a career as an aerospace engineer is a bachelor's degree in engineering. Time taken to complete the degree is from 4 to 5 years. There are several technical colleges that offer students to do an undergraduate major in aeronautical engineering, astronautical engineering or aerospace engineering. Besides having a bachelor's degree in engineering, candidates also need to fulfill some licensure requirements to start work as an aerospace engineer for the public. To obtain the license, candidates need to possess an engineering degree from an accredited institution, four years of relevant working experience and pass the State Board Examination. Annual SalarySalary of an aerospace engineer varies depending on their education, experience, work location and nature and size of the employer. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary earned by these engineers in the year 2004 was $79,100. Those who hold a master's degree will earn a starting salary of around $62,930. Those who have a doctoral degree in engineer receive a starting annual salary of $72,529. |
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