Anyone Aerospace engineers?

Hi there, the time has come where I must choose to pursue a certain career. I am having some trouble choosing one. I was considering a aerospace engineer but I would like to know more about what they do. I specifically need to know if they work by themselves or with others. I have also been considering being a aircraft mechanic (specifically turbine engines) but am unsure what I will go with.

About me...

I don't mind to be outdoors, work late, or hard. I don't mind working with technology, but I need to have some communication with others, I don't want to be locked away for a month working by myself. I love working with machines and am very mechanically inclined.

Any info. would be much appreciated.

 

Well, I can say that most of the jet mechanics I've worked with tend to work alone (they don't come cheap and most folks can't afford to have too many on staff).
The engineering side had far more intereaction and teamwork than did the mechs.
My 2 cents.
Incidently, the engineers made way more than the mechanics did/do.

 

Oh ok, from the research I have done, I though it was the opposite in terms of working with others, good thing I asked. Are you a aerospace engineer yourself? Do you ever get to do 'hands on' stuff?

 

I majored in Aerospace Engineering before changing to Computer Science.

Aerospace Engineers do a lot of theoretical work - structural and fluid dynamics simulations, control theory etc. Most work at a desk. Of course a lot of collaboration is involved.

I have a very good friend (old classmate) that is an Aerospace Engineer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. He is currently assigned to the testing facility so he gets to break some very big things! Before that he spent a lot of time at the computer and in meetings. Come to think of it, he still spends a lot of time in meetings. I'd venture though that most Aerospace engineers never do anything "hands on".

If you want to be outdoors Aerospace Engineering is probably not the place to be. Civil Engineers have much more opportunity for getting under the blue sky. On the other hand, once you get to be 40 or so working in the sun and rain and snow with sore feet and joints makes a desk job pretty appealing.

 

Go for Aircraft Mechanic and Airframe with Roto-wing.

You'll be hands-on from the moment your toolbox gets rolled into the Hangar and you'll be seeing Turbines in your sleep.

 

If you have the advanced math skills, go for an engineering degree. With your degree you have nothing but options and a much higher earning potential. If you decide later you want to be a mechanic there's no stopping you.

However, if you are a trained mechanic and later decide to go to engineering school, the learning curve is almost insurmountable. My advice would be to go for the career that has the more strenuous educational requirements. That way if you decide to do something different later, the path will be easier.

If you aim high and miss, you still land in a high place...

 

While I am not an aerospace engineer, I know two people who started in aerospace and moved to mechanical engineering.

Like the others said, they wanted to be hands on and found that aerospace was not the place for them.

 

I am not an aerospace engineer, I'm finishing my BS in Electronics. I spent 4 years at NASA Ames back in the ninties and work on a fair number of projects (best part time job I ever had!). I was a technician and got to do the burden of the "hands-on" stuff. Would do it all over again, it was that much fun! Most of the engineers (a majority of them were interns working on their projects) would wander out to the tunnel (wind tunnel that is) just to get a break from staring at their computer screens. Word around the tech department was "Never let an engineer touch a tool". I found out that this did not hold true as most of them had a grasp of the workings of their designs and a fair number of them would twirl a wrench in their spare time. The mechanical engineers I work with now (and a few of the electrical types) all come from racing and wrenching backgrounds. This hands-on approach is probably the best way to get a well rounded engineer, they have been on the ground and have learned a few lessons.
Given the choice of aeronautics engineering and structural mechanic, I'd take the engineering path simply because it will pay more, you can always take a side job as a mechanic and work on your A&P later (presumably when your high paying engineering job is covering the bills, the A&P isn't cheap).

 

Thanks for the replies guys, some great info here.

I think from this information I can conclude that aerospace would not be the way to go, but rather a mechanical engineer or a aircraft mechanic.

 

Whatever you do don't go into computers or electronics. You won't make any money unless you own the company. I wish someone would have told me I was always going to be living in poverty and to get into something else instead but when you are just a kid in school $20K sounds like a lot of money. The problem is nobody wants to pay you hardly any more than minimum wage even though they are always giving themselves big raises and bonuses. When I was in field service at Honeywell I heard they charged companies $95/hr when I was working at the customers site but I still made the same $12/hr and didn't even get a bonus. Another problem is hardly any benefits and no longevity, companies come and go and contracts get canceled so they layoff everyone and every time that happens you are left with no savings or retirement benefits and have to find another job. On the other hand I got to travel a lot and I'm probably the only person you will ever meet who has been inside a nuclear reactor.

 

I've been inside a nuclear power plant, but not the reactor itself! In fact, it was the one outside Phoenix, can't remember the exact location, this was 15+ years ago. Lots of big pipes........

 

Unfortunately, this is true in many fields.

 

WARNING!!!WARNING!!!!DANGER,WILL ROBINSON! 8O

DO NOT PURSUE A CAREER AS AN AVIATION MECHANIC UNLESS YOU THINK THAT 50K/YR IS A GREAT SALARY!
(And that's after devoting almost 30 years to the industry)
Because that's about the going rate for an experienced, 20 yr+ trained A&P with IA these days......unless you snag a good corporate gig with a fortune 500 company. Much better to pursue the aviation thing as a hobby when you're not working at your high-paying engineer's job. Trust me on this one.

 

What's wrong with 50K/YR? Sounds a lot better than $20-$30K in computer jobs. I'd love to find a way to make that much.

 

What's wrong with it is most people my age are make 2-3X that salary, without the BS and legal responsibility that go along with it. Can you lose your home if some suit-happy customer fries his hard drive? Likely not. And many of the IT guys in the corporate world are bringing home a heckuvalot more than 20-30K. I'm not complaining....just warning the OP that, like working on motorcycles, the fun wears off after a bit and the measly paychecks and piss-poor benefits don't seem so hot after a few decades of struggling to make ends meet and raising kids, etc.

 

That would be Palo Verde. Haven't been there myself, but know a guy (haven't seen him in years) who works as a HP tech (that's Health Physicist), and has been there multiple times. Bonus: I live less than an hour away from the Dolly Parton Memorial... aka SONGS (San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station). Don't believe me about the Dolly Parton bit?

Imagine the two big flashing red lights on top...

 

I work around that area ha ha ha! Yep, dolly pardon memorial. If they would put a few flags on them, they could change it to madona memorial, maybe paint the tips of them red or somethin.

 

I was a crewchief, aircraft mechanic, in the Air Force and I loved it. After I left the military, I got my A&P, Airframe and Powerplant, license.

You will definitely get plenty of that, however you also said

While you won't be by yourself, a lot of work you will do will be by yourself as most task are one man jobs. They give you a job to do and you do it.

With that said, I am now a high school math teacher, which I also love. From my experience, hardly anyone ends up doing what they majored in. If I were to give you advice, I would have to agree with daveflick:

 

I've been an airplane mechanic since 1977, mostly military and for the most part I really like it. I do not however recommend it as a career to anyone. The work schedules often suck, more and more work is being done as a contractor rather than as an employee, layoffs are frequent and the pay isn't nearly good enough for the level of education and responsibility.

I also ran automotive repair shops in the 80's and I had mechanics (the good ones) that were into the 60's then. My airplane mechanics work into the lower 50's today and have some concern if their job will be there in 2 years.

In addition to the theoretical stuff, aviation engineers also work in assembly areas troubleshooting production problems, designing jigs tooling etc., in support centers, approving various repairs and assisting with resolving ongoing problems in aircraft modification centers designing mods of many types, in numerous accessory and component overhaul facilities etc. I would recommend that before I would a position as a mechanic, but it can be cyclical as well.

Good Luck
Mike

edited for spelling

 

Not an aerospace engineer but know quite a number of folks who are. All NACA/NASA retirees who were quite successful in their careers and can tell stories about our manned space programs that make you just want to hear more and more. If I were young and just starting out I'd go for the aerospace/aeronautics degrees plus a degree in metallurgy and hammer on NASA's door. If that didn't work I'd start hitting Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, and everyone else I could think of.

I fully agree that you should get the degrees first and then if you wanted to switch to being a mechanic later on you could easily transition.

Cheers,

Phil

 

My dad was involved in space suits for the Mercury program.

The engineer that developed the suits sewed them at home on his wife's sewing machine. The final design for the face shield on the helmet was done on a napkin, in a bar, in Dayton Ohio in collaboration with a local machine shop owner.

When the launch of Alan Shepard (1st American in space) was delayed for an extended period during the final countdown he was forced to relieve himself in his flight suit. There was a crash program to solve this problem. The result was a pair of nested condoms, one with a slit cut in the end and the other with an X cut in the end glued to surgical tubing. This device is patented as a "Trojan Check Valve". When the expense report for the materials was submitted my dad got a call from accounting: "We've always known you guys were just %#$%ing around up there, but don't you think you should pay for your own rubbers?.

Those guys had a ball. They were RACING to the moon.

I don't think NASA works like that anymore. Now they have layers of bureaucracies to review every detail. Lots of meetings.

Interestingly, they killed fewer astronauts (3) strapping them atop a super sized ICBM and shooting them at the moon (with less computing power than your cell phone has) than they have in the shuttle (14?) just going into low earth orbit.