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Career in Aerospace Engineering

Career in Aeronautical Engineering

A career in Aeronautical Engineering engineering is an exciting, demanding and dynamic career. This can be the best engineering branch for those who look forward to have a bright career in space engineering, aviation industry, etc. Aerospace engineers are divided into two categories: Aeronautical engineering with aircraft or with spacecraft specialisation. Aerospace engineers who work with aircrafts are called aeronautical engineers and those working with spacecrafts are called aerospace engineers. Aeronautical Engineering is only one of the domains among several branches in engineering.

Career in Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace engineers design, develop and test aircraft, spacecraft and missiles, and supervise ere manufacture of these products. lhey actually deigt and create machines that are incredibly complex. They may work with technology relating to aviation, defence systems, and space exploration. 

Academic Qualifications for Aeronautical Engineer

A BE / B.Tech. degree in Aerospace Engineering is required. For advancement in your career you can pursue M.Tech. or Ph.D. in aeronautics. Most of the institutions will have laboratories available for  academic and research projects that include – High Speed and Low Speed Aerodynamics Lab, Propulsion Lab, Combustion Lab, Flame Dynamics Lab, Structures Lab, Flight Lab, Aeromodelling Lab and even an Autonomous Helicopter Lab.

Career in Aeronautical Engineering 

Aeronautical engineering is one of the most popular career options for those students who want to make career in the aviation industry like in airplanes, spacecraft, satellite, jumbo jets, missiles, etc. Aeronautical Engineering offers exciting careers related with space and air. Aeronautical engineering teaches all the technical specifications, design, prototyping and testing and building mechanisms behind all the flying bodies. This includes all the recent technologies of drone and unmanned aerial vehicles that is currently being utilized in almost all the sectors including defense. This field deals with aerodynamic and mechanical aspects of those machines and systems and also navigation systems, radars and other communication networks. 

Aeronautical engineers work in manufacturing units, space stations etc work mainly involves design and devel of aircraft parts, testing new aerodynamic aviation system, quality management and high improvement end vehicles and maintenance. for automobile They industry involves locomotives and swift water transportation; like speed boats, hovercrafts, etc. And also huge super mega structures like skyscrapers. 

Aeronautical engineering may lead to jobs with space research organizations like NASA and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) or with large aviation companies like Boeing and Airbus. Besides them DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organisation), CAD (Civil Aviation Department), NAL (National Aeronautics Ltd) and HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) also employ aerospace engineers. The field is highly dynamic and exciting. So, even though aerospace engineering is new, it is one of the favorites of engineering aspirants for the interesting projects that it offers.

Skills required for an Aeronautical Engineer 

Employers expect you to have deep Knowledge of aerodynamics, propulsion, navigation, electronics, physics, thermodynamics, environment, metallurgy, acoustics, etc. 

Career Opportunities in Aeronautical Engineering

Now-a-days aeronautical engineers are needed in all sorts of areas such as: 

  • Aviation Industry — private and public airlines. The airline industry needs qualified technical engineers to develop and maintain their growing fleet of aircrafts. 
  • Satellite and space research organizations
  • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
  • Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
  • Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)
  • National Aeronautics Labs (NAL), etc. 
  • Defence- Military, Air Force, DRDO
  • Automobile and fast moving locomotive industries- superfast train/ sky buses. 

Pay and perks: 

A trainee Aerospace Engineer gets approx. Rs 25,000 or more per month in an airline Organisations like research, aircraft development and manufacturing and others. After you gain experience of a couple of years your pay can go up to Rs 80,000 a month or more plus benefits as per government rules.

Specialisations in Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering

Five broad areas in which it offers specialization are Aerodynamics, Control and Guidance, Propulsion, Structures, and Systems Engineering.  Right now, major work is going on in the areas of Air Breathing Propulsion, Aerospace Control Systems, Aero-Servo-Elasticity, Aerothermo-Mechanics, Composites, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Industrial Aerodynamics, Non-destructive testing and Wind Energy.

Many of the research projects are sponsored by organizations like AICTE, ADA, ARDB, DST, ISRO, and MHRD.

Research at IIT Kharaghpur

The Aerodynamics and Fluid mechanics research group at IIT Kharagpur explores a diverse range of topics with a variety of approaches. Numerical work includes development of high accuracy numerical schemes for incompressible and compressible flow using higher order and compact schemes. Experimental work involves use of wind tunnels, water tank, etc accompanied by measurement instruments like PIV, flow visualization techniques, high precision load cells and balances & pressure scanners to investigate various flow problems like fixed and flapping wings, train models, bluff bodies, sub boundary layer vortex generators in supersonic flow etc. The broad areas of research are summarized as follows: DNS and LES of compressible nozzle and diffuser flows, active and passive control of jets in various configurations, jet aeroacoustics, bluff body flow control, fixed and flapping wing aerodynamics, high enthalpy flows, Lagrangian coherent structures, aerodynamic study of high speed train configurations, multiphase flow simulations in hybrid rocket combustors, shock wave boundary layer interactions, RCS jet in supersonic cross flow and chaff cloud aerodynamics. 

Current research activities include: Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large-eddy Simulation (LES) of compressible turbulent flow in nozzles & diffusers, LES of shock-turbulence interaction in supersonic pipe & diffuser flows, prediction of flow transition for hypersonic flows, experimental studies on controlled shock-boundary layer interactions in hypersonic intake, slosh dynamics and fluid structure interaction, experimental investigation of low aspect ratio rigid wing executing main flapping, pitch and heave motions, bio-inspired drag reduction of low Reynolds number flyers, investigation on the distribution of absorbed energy after a laser induced breakdown in quiescent air, and aerodynamic design of traction rolling stock with speed potentials of 250 km/h upgradeable up to 350 km/h.