Aerospace Engineering at University

[Jinkster]

I know this girl who is studying Aerospace engineering. What do they actually cover in the course?

Many thanks,

Jinkster

[Genghis the Engineer]

An MEng degree in Aerospace Engineering is about 50 hours per week, 42 weeks per year, for 4 years (3 years if she's doing the older BEng course).

The first year covers mostly: Maths (mostly algebra, calculus and geometry), structures, "mechanics (the maths behind how machines work), fluid mechanics, basic flight mechanics, basic aerodynamics, electronics, computer programming, aircraft performance, engineering materials, technical drawing. Most of this is done about 50% in the lecture theatre, and 50% either in the lab or by assignment.

Often a bit of basic workshop training comes in in the 1st year as well - not to a high standard, but enough to understand the general processes.


The second year is generally even more maths, more aerodynamics up to supersonics and CFD, system dynamics, flight mechanics up to modelling of fairly complex flight vehicles (mostly fixed wing), vehicle design (often covering everything from helicopters to satellites), more materials and mechanics, quite complex stress analysis, small design and build projects using the skills built up so far.

Usually in the second year there is a week or two doing practical flight testing as well, most often in the Cranfield Jetstream but that depends upon the University.


Then the third and fourth years are spent doing a combination of project work (usually in small teams - told to spend the next 3 months designing the main systems of an airliner, that sort of thing), and specialist courses. The specialist courses, of which they usually do 5 per year are varied and depend upon individual students objectives, but typical subjects include astronautics (spacecraft design), CFD, FEA, advanced materials, project management, technical French, helicopter design - and so on.


At the end of 3 or 4 years they graduate with a BEng(Hons) or MEng(Hons) if they got it right, following which they typically spend 6 months working for Dominos Pizza delivery. After that however, when they finally get a job they have to do another 2-years specialist on the job training in their "chosen" specialism (say stress analysis, aerodynamics, airworthiness, etc.) and a further 2 years of working independently before, 8+ years after leaving school, they can apply to be called a Chartered Engineer.

G