Training for Aeronautical Engineering
 

Hello John,

My username is flyaway bird and my real name is Mary. Kindly assist me on information referring to the above topic. I live in USA and one of my sons by name James, is about to complete his high school senior year, this year in May 2011.
My question is, where can he train for Aeronautical Engineering? Would you know of some colleges here in USA. He has been performing well in all his subjects Maths, English, Physics, etc.

I would really appreciate any information you may know regarding the above subject.

I thank you in advance for your kind assistance.

Mary;)

Mary posted this question in Tech Log. Probably she will get a better range of answers here from the US PE folks. Thanks and regards, J_T

I would look closely at what the U.S. military is seeking. Navy, marines, U.S.Army and the USAF. I wish him well.

A little costly but this is what you are asking for, www.erau.edu. I would suggest a more generalized degree, electronics would be great. It is generally accepted in the field of avionics. Unless structural R&D is what your son aspires to. There are soo many options and schools. It all depends on his scholastics, desires and your finances.

Hello Mary,

It's worth trying to understand what sort of Engineering he's interested in doing - our profession is pretty broad.

There are many excellent universities in the USA (and abroad - given that a university education is quite expensive in your country, it's worth looking elsewhere also - the English speaking world alone covers the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland, all with some excellent aeronautical engineering departments), outside the English speaking world France, Germany, Brazil and others also do well.

For example, if your son's interests are in space engineering, systems, helicopters, flight test, operational management, maintenance - there are departments with specialisms in all of those. It can be a little hard to work out from the outside what those are, but a good route is to look at departmental websites and see what the professors research interests are. They tend to teach best what they research.

On that subject, there is a clear hierarchy amongst university departments - the most prestigious tend to be those with big money research going on, the next tend to be those with "okay", research, then you have the high quality teaching-only universities such as Embry-Riddle, and finally the community colleges. Don't get too hung-up about these differences, but it's useful to be aware of them, and they can certainly affect the academic fees in the USA (other countries tend to be more uniform - here in Britain, the fees tend to be pretty much the same at any university, regardless of quality).


I'm reluctant to recommend specific universities in the USA, just because there are so many, and those I've had personal contact with I only really know through particular specialisms, and are only a few of many. If your son fancies Britain for 3 or 4 years (more likely 4 for a BEng or 5 for an MEng, since the standard of maths and science in a high school graduate in the USA tends to be rather poorer than in the UK, so starting in the foundation year is likely) I can recommend looking at Southampton, (Glasgow), Loughborough (which is especially good for students with a strong sports interest), Brunel and Liverpool. All are world class and would present no problems in returning to work in the US aerospace industries.

As has also been said, the US armed forces offer excellent in-house undergraduate and graduate programmes - all four of the main services do this, and all four offer excellent career routes. Of course, an armed forces career is not for everybody, particularly in the current uncertain times, but this is well worth looking hard at.

G

Aeronautical Engineering Training
 

DERG

Thank you so much for your valued advice, my son and I will go over this suggestion.

Thanks

flyawaybird

Aeronautical Engineering Training
 

grounded27

Hi, I am so grateful for your valued advice and which is also diversified.
I will seriously look into it.

Once again, a big thank you.

Mary (flyawaybird):ok:

Genghis the Engineer

Hi there,

Thank you so much for this highly useful information. At least I have a variety of information to work on. In case he choses Britain or any of the places you have mentioned, I will let you know. I know he loves playing soccer.

I am grateful for this useful information.

Thanks.:D:ok:

Mary

Aeronautical Engineering Training
 

GengHis the Engineer,

Thank you so much for such detailed information on the vast above topic. Being a lay person in this, I did not know how wide this topic is. I am indeed very grateful for your time in writing a detailed account of the information I requested here. In fact my son read all your responses and ask me to request for further info as stated in my next paragraph. I know it is very much time consuming for you, and I do appreciate the time you have so far taken to give me this information, being a busy person. We also need to know the College websites for systems and flight test engineering in UK.

As you clearly state about the standard of education between UK and US, I can only confirm that it is verys true what you said because even my son has repeatedly told me, since our arrival here, about a year ago, how he found education here much easier. I am sure he would love to come to UK if we only we knew rought the estimates in particular about Systems Engineering and/or flight service engineering or flight test engineering.
Is it possible to get brief accounts on those two type of engineering? You see in school, when they request for info on different types of subjects they want to do in college, they are told to go to internet. At the internet unless one knows exactly which websites to browse, it can awfully take a lot of time to read the numerous details given in general. Since you, youself are an Engineer or well informed on the subject area, I would rather hear from you.

In case we find that we cannot afford, then my son and I can discuss the US Marine, Airforce, Army training. James at 18, is not of the idea to go to the armed forces for fear of being sent to the war zones. I keep on telling him that there a lot of other young people there and that not everyone dies but among his peerage, a different story is discussed.

Once again, thank you so much for being so kind to us as to relay to us such informative info.

Thank you.:D

Mary

unsolicited advice
 

The money he will make and civil experience earned will be worth the student loan. Unless his interview for the dream job happens to be held by a vet, it is a waste of time especially if he has no military aspirations.

Unsolicited advice
 

grounded27

Thank you for your advice. I guess this is where he end up eventually, on student loan. He is still going through all the advices here at PpruNe.

Flyawaybird
Aeronautical Engineering School

One school in the US that comes to mind is Purdue University. See the attactchment below:

Purdue University - Majors

Another possibility is the University of Cincinnati. They have a program in Aerospace engineering that includes aircraft. Some of the engineering programs are 5 year programs (known as Co-op Programs), where the student spends some of each year working in industry while learning and being paid to do so.
University of Cincinnati - Degree Programs

UC has a strong relationship with GE Aviation in Cincinnati. Also, GE and the University of Cincinnati (UC) are actively discussing a possible UC research facility at GE. For decades, UC and GE have collaborated on numerous aerospace research projects, while thousands of GE personnel have graduated from the university, and thousands of UC co-op students have received on-the-job training at GE. However, current discussions are focused on a possible permanent and significant UC presence at or near the GE Aviation Evendale complex.

Good luck to you and your son,

Turbine D

thankyou
 

Thankyou for the helpful info.do you know any colleges like that in any states close to new jersey?mary's son james..

Aeronautical Engineering Technology
 

Turbine D

Hi,

Thank you for the valued information you have given me. My son, has settled to University of Cincinnati or Purdue. I believe he has written to you some enquiries.

Once again, thank you. You have been very helpful.

:Dflyawaybird

Firstly on the last point (and sorry for being slow replying), in any age - and the current one is particularly no exception, anybody joining the armed or emergency services (and a few allied trades) can expect to be sent in harms way. This is a harsh fact, and if your son considers that unacceptable, then he's absolutely right not to look in that direction - it's not for everybody. Personally, it was never a major consideration for me, but I'm aware that a lot of people have a major problem with personal risk, or with the military activity.

Now, individual disciplines.

Systems engineering in a relatively new name for a very old field - it is all about integrating the numerous parts of a large complex machine (such as an aeroplane), and making them work effectively together. With the increasing complexity of modern aircraft, it's become a discipline in its own right, rather than just what senior aeronautical engineers got on and did. There are undergraduate degrees in this, but more commonly it is a specialist job people go into after graduating in something like aerospace /aeronautical engineering.

Flight Services Engineering - I really don't know, but it sounds a bit mickey mouse to me.

Flight Test Engineering (very much my own discipline) is about taking flight equipment (varying from a small black box to a whole new aeroplane) and eventually either proving that it'll do the job for which it was designed, or finding the faults with it so that other engineering disciplines can sort it out. In my entirely biased opinion, it's one of the most exciting fields to work in - but it's also one of the hardest to get into. A first degree in some aerospace engineering discipline is pretty much essential, then it is a matter of further education either on the job or via a specialist course. To a civilian, there are really two MSc programmes available and worth doing - at NPTS in California (Master of Flight Test Engineer), and at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire (MSc Flight Dynamics). There are far more options to military people, but at the same time there are many options to train up whilst working in an allied field in existing aerospace organisations.

G

flyawaybird

Hi James,

If you are looking for a university close to home that offers aeronautical engineering, you may want to consider Rutgers. They offer such a program, see attachment below:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Turbine D

flyawaybird....

Turbine D is your man on this subject. He has extensive experience.
My own son is 20, and at college, and he had plenty of help. I agree with you about needing GOOD advice. Turbine D is your man here.

As far as personal risk is concerned in the military I would discount that in your son's ambition, unless he has a fundamental moral objection.

Training for Aeronautical Engineering
 

Turbine D

Hi Turbine,

What is the difference between Aerospace Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering?

Thank you.

Mary:confused:

In most cases, no difference at-all. Aviation, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics, etc. are mostly just the names different universities put on their courses.

Apart from being less likely to find space content in something without Aerospace or Astronautics in the title, it really is down to looking at the individual department and syllabus.

G

Flyawaybird

I completely agree with Genghis the Engineer on the difference in titles different universities use.

Turbine D