Aerospace Engineering Admission 2015

Aerospace Engineering, generally known as ‘Rocket Science’, is a Specialized Field of Engineering that involves the science & engineering of aircrafts and spacecrafts including aeroplanes, helicopters, rockets, missiles, space stations, space-shuttles and many more such flying vehicles operating within and outside the earth’s atmosphere. This special feature of career guidance  brings you the Top Engineering colleges offering Aerospace Engineering and the scope and opportunities in this Specialized Engineering Branch. We also bring you insights on job profiles and top recruiters for Aerospace Engineering.

Aerospace Engineering: An Overview

Aerospace Engineering deals with the research, design, development, construction, testing, collaboration processes, science and technology of aircraft & spacecraft, and their products. It involves the study of science and engineering behind the physical properties of rockets, aircrafts and spacecrafts. This domain is a complex subject and essentially requires superior & sophisticated tools. Aerospace Engineers also deal with development of new technology in aviation, space exploration & defense system.

Aerospace Engineering comprises of 2 major disciplines-

• Aeronautical Engineering: Deals with aircrafts operating in the atmosphere of Earth.
• Astronautical Engineering: Deals with spacecrafts operating outside the atmosphere of Earth.

Aerospace Industry: A growing domain- Many achievements in the domains of telecommunications, electronics and robotics are inspired by the developments in Aerospace Industry. Telecommunication network of India is the 2nd largest in the world with more than 900 million telephone connections. This has been possible because of telecommunication satellites that are manufactured and taken care of by specialized Aerospace Engineers.

Indian defense sector has also been strengthened in past few years because of Indian military crafts like Sukhoi, HAL Tejas, SEPECAT Jaguar, BAE Hawk, HAL Dhruv, etc. Fleet of advanced fighter planes is the proof of India’s well-equipped defense sector, which is the result of talent and contribution of Aerospace Engineers.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a premier aerospace company fully owned by Indian government, is among top 100 global aerospace companies. Retaining 38th rank globally, it has become a major name in the Aerospace Industry and is also a key partner for space programmes of ISRO. A notable name in the industry, HAL is also among top 5 aerospace manufacturing companies in terms of profit margin, which is 23%.

According to Confederation of India Industry (CII), India’s Aircraft MRO segment (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) is estimated to grow at 10 % and reach USD2.6 billion by 2020.

Thus, careers opportunities are also knocking in this domain.

Core Subjects

Students of Aerospace Engineering learn about different specialized aspects of the domain. The Core Subjects of this engineering include the following elements below:

• Chemistry- A Molecular Science
• Intro Engineering
• Aerodynamics
• Chemistry- A Quantitative Science
• Aerospace Structure Computing
• Environment Physics
• Engineering Aerospace
• Vehicle Design
• Engineer Dynamics
• Physics for Engineers and Scientists II
• Statics Propulsion Calculus II
• Flight Vehicle control
• Solid Mechanics Calculus
• Health & Fitness Space Flight

Roles of Aerospace Engineer

An Aerospace Engineer is responsible for directing and coordinating the design, along with manufacturing & testing the aircrafts & aerospace products. He/she also needs to access the proposals to determine the technically and financially feasible ones. Let’s have a glance at some of the duties of Aerospace Engineers below-

• Aerospace Engineers make sure that the project on which they are working shall result in safe aircrafts and their parts.
• Engineers evaluate the designs of the products so that they meet engineering principles, customer requirements and environmental challenges.
• They ensure that the projects meet acceptance criteria for design methods and required quality standards.
• Aerospace Engineers are involved in inspection of malfunctioning or damaged products in order to identify the sources of errors and suggest possible solutions.
• They develop new technologies to be used in aviation, defense systems, and spacecraft. Areas such as structural design, guidance, navigation, aerodynamic fluid flow, robotics, propulsion, combustion, etc. are taken care of by specialized Aerospace Engineers. 
• Aerospace Engineers supervise the assembly of airframes, installation of engines, instruments, and other such equipment.
• They are required to participate in the flight test programmes in order to measure rate of climb, stall speeds, take-off distances and landing capacities.

How to pursue Aerospace Engineering?

Did you always wanted to know how things fly? Are you intrigued by air and space travel? If yes, then pursuing Aerospace Engineering is the domain where you can easily fit in. To pursue a career in this sector, the first step is to get a UG degree in Aerospace Engineering.

One has to pass higher secondary board exam from a recognized board in India with Science- Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry to pursue B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering. This is the minimum eligibility criteria.

 Top colleges for studying Aerospace Engineering

IIT Bombay	IIT Kanpur
IIT Kharagpur	IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology	Indian Institute of Science
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies	PEC University of Technology
Hindustan University	Amrita University

Duration of UG degree in Aerospace Engineering: 4 Years, Full Time

Scope & Opportunity

Aerospace Engineering is more than hundred years old, but still this discipline requires a lot of innovation for development of next generation Spacecrafts, Launch Vehicles, Hypersonic Aircrafts, etc. Thus, this specialized field has become an ever-evolving discipline that is offering exciting career opportunities and challenges. With several private players entering the Aerospace Industry, bright job prospects for fresh graduates of this field have increased to a great extent. The broadening scope of Aerospace Engineering can be understood below-

• With the multi-faceted training imparted to students of Aerospace Engineering, they are capable of manufacturing and developing aircrafts and missiles for aviation and aerospace sector.
• Aerospace Engineers also design, test and contribute towards the development of new and advanced technologies in the domain of defense and space science.
• In India, Aerospace Engineers are employed by premier organizations like ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL), Defense Research and Development Laboratories (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), etc.  Also, there are so many job opportunities in countries like US, France, UK and Germany. Indian Aerospace Engineers are employed with NASA as well.