Aeronautical Engineering

[goosie]

Can anybody tell me what Aeronautical Engineering involves and what kind of a job can one aquire with this degree

[Genghis the Engineer]

Lots of Maths, lots of basic aeronautical theory, lots of general Engineering, and a fair bit of labwork - about 50 hours of work per week for 3 or 4 years. Entry requirement is generally around 3 Bs, in Maths, Physics and another science / mathematical subject.

I've got an Aero-Eng degree and work in general aircraft design approvals and flight testing. Friends I graduated with are RAF Officers, an oil company executive, a couple of well paid programmers, a software developer for a flight simulator company, a project manager for a digital TV company, a project manager for the MoD, a missionary, and a few professional pilots.

Friends and colleages who graduated with the same degree from other places include test pilots, a senior stressman at Westlands, pretty much everybody in the CAA's Safety Regulation Group HQ at Gatwick, and lots of computer programmers / project managers.

So, in essence you can enter pretty much any technical or aeronautical field with an Aero Eng degree. If you want to be a technician / mechanic, you'd be better off with an apprenticeship. If you want to end up a full time pilot, opinions are divided as to whether an Aero degree, or straight into the self improver route is the best bet - but the degree will probably give you more options.

G

[goosie]

Thanks G

[M J Cripps]

I have just completed an MEng in Aernautical Engineering at Bristol. This means that it took 4 years, instead of 3 for a BEng.

What G said is pretty much correct, although when I started, the standard offer from Bristol university was AAB.
The core subjects such as Maths, Aerodynamics, Structures & Materials and control theory run throughout the course.
But you will also cover management techniques, basic electronics and many other subjects.

There are opportunities to select various options, especially towards the end of your course. For example, you may wish to study rotary wing, or many people do a language or psychology element to their course for a bit of variety.

In terms of jobs, there are limitless possibilities.
Graduate engineers are in short supply at the moment, so those who decide to stay in the engineering industry are in great demand.
Having said that, if you do decide to leave the engineering industry, the accounting and finance sector look very favourably upon engineers as do most other sectors requiring degrees for a managment position.

From my year at uni, we have a few people going into engineering, a few pilots (military & civil), a few accounting and finance, a couple in IT, one working for charity and one going to be a pub landlord!

So keep an open mind. An Aero Eng degree is hard work, and can be fairly academic, but if it's what you want to do, it will stand you in good stead for the future.