- Also called:
- aeronautical engineering, or astronautical engineering
- Related Topics:
- engineering
- aerospace telemetry
aerospace engineering
-
What is aerospace engineering?
Aerospace engineering integrates multiple engineering fields for the design, construction, and operation of vehicles in the Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Originally encompassing aeronautical and astronautical engineering, aerospace engineering now merges these disciplines, considering both domains as a single realm for flight vehicle development.
The field requires expertise in aerodynamics, propulsion, structural design, materials, avionics, and control systems. Aerospace engineers find opportunities in industries such as transportation, communication, and energy, contributing to the design of efficient land and sea vehicles. Research in this field focuses on enhancing flight vehicle maneuverability and survivability.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What types of vehicles do aerospace engineers design?
Aerospace engineers design a variety of vehicles that operate in the Earth's atmosphere and outer space. These include military and civil aircraft, transport aircraft, fighter aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft. They also work on the design of land and sea vehicles, focusing on speed and efficiency. Aerospace engineers are involved in the design, development, and testing of flight vehicles, integrating various engineering technologies to create optimized designs.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do airplanes stay in the air?
Airplanes stay in the air due to the interaction of four forces: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. The wing's airfoil shape is crucial for generating lift. Air flows faster over the curved upper surface of the wing than the lower surface, creating lower pressure above and higher pressure below. This pressure difference generates an upward force called lift, which counteracts the airplane's weight. Thrust, produced by the engine, propels the aircraft forward, overcoming drag, which is the resistance to lift and the friction of the aircraft moving through the air. The angle of attack, the angle of the wing relative to the wind, also affects lift.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some challenges in designing spacecraft?
Designing spacecraft presents several challenges. Spacecraft must be lightweight yet durable to withstand extreme acceleration during launch and the harsh space environment, including radiation and extreme temperatures. They need reliable systems for power, propulsion, communication, attitude control, and thermal management. Spacecraft also face threats from space weather, including radiation exposure that can damage electronic components, and satellite drag, which can affect their orbital lifetime. Micrometeoroids and space debris pose collision hazards, requiring protective measures like dust bumpers.
6 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How does aerodynamics affect aircraft and spacecraft?
Aerodynamics significantly impacts aircraft and spacecraft design and performance. It involves managing forces like lift, drag, thrust, and weight to achieve stable and efficient flight.
For aircraft, aerodynamic principles dictate wing shape (airfoil) and angle to optimize lift and minimize drag. Computer technology helps to design specialized airfoils.
For spacecraft, especially during reentry, aerodynamics plays a crucial role in managing heat and controlling the descent angle to prevent bouncing off the atmosphere or burning up. Aerodynamic design also affects the structural requirements of the aircraft.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What kinds of jobs do people in aerospace engineering have and where do they work?
Aerospace engineers work in designing, developing, constructing, and testing vehicles that operate in Earth's atmosphere or outer space. They are often part of design teams specializing in aerodynamics, propulsion, structural design, avionics, and materials.
Due to their extensive background, aerospace engineers can find opportunities in transportation, construction, communication, and energy industries, as well as in the design of land and sea vehicles. They can be employed by airline companies as performance analysts, crash investigators, and consultants, and their technical expertise is also utilized by the Federal Aviation Administration.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
News •
aerospace engineering, field of engineering concerned with the design, development, construction, testing, and operation of vehicles operating in the Earth’s atmosphere or in outer space. In 1958 the first definition of aerospace engineering appeared, considering the Earth’s atmosphere and the space above it as a single realm for development of flight vehicles. Today the more encompassing aerospace definition has commonly replaced the terms aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering.
The design of a flight vehicle demands a knowledge of many engineering disciplines. It is rare that one person takes on the entire task; instead, most companies have design teams specialized in the sciences of aerodynamics, propulsion systems, structural design, materials, avionics, and stability and control systems. No single design can optimize all of these sciences, but rather there exist compromised designs that incorporate the vehicle specifications, available technology, and economic feasibility.
History
Aeronautical engineering
The roots of aeronautical engineering can be traced to the early days of mechanical engineering, to inventors’ concepts, and to the initial studies of aerodynamics, a branch of theoretical physics. The earliest sketches of flight vehicles were drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, who suggested two ideas for sustentation. The first was an ornithopter, a flying machine using flapping wings to imitate the flight of birds. The second idea was an aerial screw, the predecessor of the helicopter. Manned flight was first achieved in 1783, in a hot-air balloon designed by the French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier. Aerodynamics became a factor in balloon flight when a propulsion system was considered for forward movement. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to propose such an idea, which led to the development of the dirigible. The power-driven balloon was invented by Henri Gifford, a Frenchman, in 1852. The invention of lighter-than-air vehicles occurred independently of the development of aircraft. The breakthrough in aircraft development came in 1799 when Sir George Cayley, an English baron, drew an airplane incorporating a fixed wing for lift, an empennage (consisting of horizontal and vertical tail surfaces for stability and control), and a separate propulsion system. Because engine development was virtually nonexistent, Cayley turned to gliders, building the first successful one in 1849. Gliding flights established a data base for aerodynamics and aircraft design. Otto Lilienthal, a German scientist, recorded more than 2,000 glides in a five-year period, beginning in 1891. Lilienthal’s work was followed by the American aeronaut Octave Chanute, a friend of the American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, the fathers of modern manned flight.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Following the first sustained flight of a heavier-than-air vehicle in 1903, the Wright brothers refined their design, eventually selling airplanes to the U.S. Army. The first major impetus to aircraft development occurred during World War I, when aircraft were designed and constructed for specific military missions, including fighter attack, bombing, and reconnaissance. The end of the war marked the decline of military high-technology aircraft and the rise of civil air transportation. Many advances in the civil sector were due to technologies gained in developing military and racing aircraft. A successful military design that found many civil applications was the U.S. Navy Curtiss NC-4 flying boat, powered by four 400-horsepower V-12 Liberty engines. It was the British, however, who paved the way in civil aviation in 1920 with a 12-passenger Handley-Page transport. Aviation boomed after Charles A. Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Advances in metallurgy led to improved strength-to-weight ratios and, coupled with a monocoque design, enabled aircraft to fly farther and faster. Hugo Junkers, a German, built the first all-metal monoplane in 1910, but the design was not accepted until 1933, when the Boeing 247-D entered service. The twin-engine design of the latter established the foundation of modern air transport.
The advent of the turbine-powered airplane dramatically changed the air transportation industry. Germany and Britain were concurrently developing the jet engine, but it was a German Heinkel He 178 that made the first jet flight on Aug. 27, 1939. Even though World War II accelerated the growth of the airplane, the jet aircraft was not introduced into service until 1944, when the British Gloster Meteor became operational, shortly followed by the German Me 262. The first practical American jet was the Lockheed F-80, which entered service in 1945.
Commercial aircraft after World War II continued to use the more economical propeller method of propulsion. The efficiency of the jet engine was increased, and in 1949 the British de Havilland Comet inaugurated commercial jet transport flight. The Comet, however, experienced structural failures that curtailed the service, and it was not until 1958 that the highly successful Boeing 707 jet transport began nonstop transatlantic flights. While civil aircraft designs utilize most new technological advancements, the transport and general aviation configurations have changed only slightly since 1960. Because of escalating fuel and hardware prices, the development of civil aircraft has been dominated by the need for economical operation.
Technological improvements in propulsion, materials, avionics, and stability and controls have enabled aircraft to grow in size, carrying more cargo faster and over longer distances. While aircraft are becoming safer and more efficient, they are also now very complex. Today’s commercial aircraft are among the most sophisticated engineering achievements of the day.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
Smaller, more fuel-efficient airliners are being developed. The use of turbine engines in light general aviation and commuter aircraft is being explored, along with more efficient propulsion systems, such as the propfan concept. Using satellite communication signals, onboard microcomputers can provide more accurate vehicle navigation and collision-avoidance systems. Digital electronics coupled with servo mechanisms can increase efficiency by providing active stability augmentation of control systems. New composite materials providing greater weight reduction; inexpensive one-man, lightweight, noncertified aircraft, referred to as ultralights; and alternate fuels such as ethanol, methanol, synthetic fuel from shale deposits and coal, and liquid hydrogen are all being explored. Aircraft designed for vertical and short takeoff and landing, which can land on runways one-tenth the normal length, are being developed. Hybrid vehicles such as the Bell XV-15 tilt-rotor already combine the vertical and hover capabilities of the helicopter with the speed and efficiency of the airplane. Although environmental restrictions and high operating costs have limited the success of the supersonic civil transport, the appeal of reduced traveling time justifies the examination of a second generation of supersonic aircraft.
Aerospace engineering
The use of rocket engines for aircraft propulsion opened a new realm of flight to the aeronautical engineer. Robert H. Goddard, an American, developed, built, and flew the first successful liquid-propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. Goddard proved that flight was possible at speeds greater than the speed of sound and that rockets can work in a vacuum. The major impetus in rocket development came in 1938 when the American James Hart Wyld designed, built, and tested the first U.S. regeneratively cooled liquid rocket engine. In 1947 Wyld’s rocket engine powered the first supersonic research aircraft, the Bell X-1, flown by the U.S. Air Force captain Charles E. Yeager. Supersonic flight offered the aeronautical engineer new challenges in propulsion, structures and materials, high-speed aeroelasticity, and transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic aerodynamics. The experience gained in the X-1 tests led to the development of the X-15 research rocket plane, which flew nearly 200 flights over a nine-year period. The X-15 established an extensive database in transonic and supersonic flight (up to five times the speed of sound) and revealed vital information concerning the upper atmosphere.
The late 1950s and ’60s marked a period of intense growth for astronautical engineering. In 1957 the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite, which triggered a space exploration race with the United States. In 1961 U.S. president John F. Kennedy recommended to Congress to undertake the challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth” by the end of the 1960s. This commitment was fulfilled on July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., landed on the Moon.
The 1970s began the decline of the U.S. manned spaceflights. The exploration of the Moon was replaced by unmanned voyages to Jupiter, Saturn, and other planets. The exploitation of space was redirected from conquering distant planets to providing a better understanding of the human environment. Artificial satellites provide data pertaining to geographic formations, oceanic and atmospheric movements, and worldwide communications. The frequency of U.S. spaceflights in the 1960s and ’70s led to the development of a reusable, low-orbital-altitude space shuttle. Known officially as the Space Transportation System, the shuttle has made numerous flights since its initial launch on April 12, 1981. It has been used for both military and commercial purposes (e.g., deployment of communications satellites).