Career as Aeronautical Engineer

Introduction

Today we are discussing career as Aeronautical engineer.

"Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was."

 

— Theodore Von Karman, Aerospace Engineer.

 

Indeed, as far as Aerospace Engineering is concerned, the practitioners of this field have actually created the world that never was
Aerospace engineering covers everything related with air crafts and spacecrafts - from their design to construction and science. It is sub-divided into two major branches, which more or less overlaps each other: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. While aeronautical engineering primarily deals with air crafts that stay within the Earth's atmosphere, astronautical engineering on the other hand deals with spacecrafts operating outside of Earth's atmosphere.

 

As far as aircrafts, rockets, flying crafts & spacecrafts are concerned, aerospace engineering looks into the whole science behind their design, construction, and study of their forces and physical properties. The aerodynamic characteristics and behaviors, airfoil, control surfaces, lift, drag, and other properties are also covered in this field of engineering.

 

Aeronautical / Aerospace Engineering is one of the most challenging fields of engineering with a wide scope for growth. This field deals with the development of new technology in the field of aviation, space exploration and defense systems. It specializes in the designing, construction, development, testing, operation and maintenance of both commercial and military aircraft, spacecrafts and their components as well as satellites and missiles.

 

Aeronautical engineering job usually requires the incumbent engineer to work in teams under the supervision of senior engineers, bringing together their skills and technical expertise.

 

The aeronautical engineer can specialize in areas like structural design, navigational guidance and control systems, instrumentation and communication or production methods or it can be in a particular product such as military aircrafts, passenger planes, helicopters, satellites, rockets etc.

Courses & Eligibility

Eligibility for Aeronautical Engineering is 10 + 2 in Science stream; high percentage of marks in Science subjects and qualifying exam (JEE, AIEEE and others)

 

To Start career as aeronautical engineer one should be a BE/B.Tech. in aeronautics. The Madras Institute of Technology offers a one year postgraduate programme in aeronautical engineering for B.Sc. students. One can also study M.Tech. and Ph.D. in aeronautics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

 

Those who have passed the Associate Membership Exam conducted by ASI (Aeronautical Society of India), which is at par with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering, they are also eligible to become aeronautical engineers. It is possible to take a degree in electronics or physics to work in this field and leave more options open.

 

The Aeronautical Society of India(www.aeronasik.com)

The Society is the recognized body for aeronautical engineering in India. It was established in 1948 and it conducts Associate Membership Examination consisting of two sections (Section A and Section B). Section A has eight compulsory papers. The eligibility for appearing in the Associate Membership Examination is minimum 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics individually in 10 + 2. Other than this, students having other qualifications can also apply provided they meet the eligibility criteria as detailed in the prospectus.

 

Section B comprises of eight specialist streams and each stream consists of seven papers. The eligibility for appearing in Section B examination is completing and clearing Section A examination. But if there are any candidates who hold a degree in any branch of engineering then they are eligible to directly appear for Section B exam. However, such candidates will have to appear for and pass the exam for the subject "Principles of Flight" from Section A.

 

Each subject is a 100 mark paper and pass marks are 50. Examinations are held twice a year, in June & December across nine centers. Those who successfully clear through the 2 sections are designated as Associate Member of the Aeronautical Society of India (AMAeSI) which is recognized as equivalent to B.Tech (Aeronautical Engineering).

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Top colleges for Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering

Following is a list of some of the aeronautical engineering colleges in India:

Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai - Four year B. Tech in Aerospace EngineeringIIT, Kharagpur (WB) - Four year B. Tech in Aerospace EngineeringIndian Institute of Technology, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) - Four year B. Tech in Aerospace EngineeringIIT, KanpurPunjab Engineering College, Chandigarh

Top Universities as per QS World University Rankings 2014 Engineering - Mechanical-Aeronautical and Manufacturing

1. MIT, USA

 

 

 

 

 

2. Stanford University, USA

 

3. University of Cambridge, UK

4. University of California Berkeley ( UCB)

5. University of Michigan USA

6. Imperial College London, UK

7. National University of Singapore, Singapore

8. The university of Tokyo, Japan

9. Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

10. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

11. California Institute of Technology, USA

12. Purdue University, USA

13. Tsinghua University, China

14. Northwestern University, USA

15. The university of Melbourne, Australia

Pay and Remuneration

Aeronautical engineering salary - An assistant engineer in a public or private sector aircraft manufacturer earns Rs.3 to Rs.6 lacs per annum. However, the compensation increases as one gains experience. Aeronautical Engineering Jobs are also there in defense sector, particularly the public sector DRDO, that comes under the ministry of defense. These engineering jobs offer the standard compensation as in any other Public Sector Enterprise.

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Career Prospects

Career prospects are bright for placements in industry and also in research organizations like DRDO . Not only you can get job after completion of B Tech you can also join as Junior Research Fellow in leading research organizations.

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Famous Personalities

Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to go to space and the first Indian-American Astronaut. She was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Columbia. She held a degree in BE in Aeronautical Engineering and had graduated from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. After her graduation she went on to pursue M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. She then went on to earn a second M.S. degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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A Day In Life

The actual work of an Aeronautical Engineer varies with different job profiles. However, most of the engineers who work as Flight Safety engineers have the following schedule:

 

The first thing that the engineer does once he comes to the office is to check and verify the reports from operations, safety and airworthiness departments. They spend good amount of time analyzing the reports and preparing action plan to rectify the problems.

 

Thereafter, they work on malfunctioning instruments and problem areas along with technicians. The evening time is spent in testing various different instrumentation sets that have come from other clients or customers and rectify them for delivery on deadline.