Aerospace Engineering: Beyond Humanities Boundaries

By: Sayohn J

Published on: January 23rd, 2025

Aerospace engineering is a blend of the engineering field's most innovative and complex aspects. This discipline of engineering, dedicated to designing, developing, and testing aircraft and spacecraft technology continues to test humanity’s boundaries by growing to newer and newer heights. Some of aerospace engineering's biggest breakthroughs have been in exploration, transportation, and global defense. From enabling spaceflight to eventually humans being able to commercially fly into space, this field of engineering continues to transform society as a whole.

Aerospace engineering is split into two main branches: aeronautical and astronautical. Aeronautical engineering focuses on systems within the Earth’s atmosphere, including commercial flights, military jets, helicopters, and drones. In contrast, aerospace engineering works with the science and technology of spacecraft operating beyond Earth’s atmosphere, this includes space shuttles, satellites, and interplanetary probes (Anderson 35). Both of these branches are influential in developments ranging from transportation (commercial flights) to defense (military and satellite technology).

The application of aerospace engineering is mostly commonly seen in transportation systems, mostly in commercial flights. In the little over a century of air travel development humans have seen, we have managed to evolve aircraft to be safer, faster, and more efficient than ever before. Innovations in design and resource use are heavily responsible for improvements, such as using carbon fiber-reinforced polymers rather than aluminum to uphold structural integrity while reducing weight (Anderson 68).

Aerospace engineering has helped humanity cross through alleys into opportunities that were once just science fiction. For example, the development of reusable space vehicles, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. With such innovations, we have managed to significantly reduce the cost of accessing space, which in turn introduces opportunities such as commercial space travel. We also may not realize it, but aerospace engineering has created opportunities that we use in our day-to-day lives, such as GPS or weather forecasting, which is reliant on satellite systems.

Aerospace engineering still faces many obstacles to future development, such as environmental sustainability. The field contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, forcing engineers to investigate alternative fuel options. Furthermore, aerospace engineering contributes to space pollution and the spread of space debris, meaning systems to mitigate space waste must also be implemented.

In conclusion, aerospace engineering continues to be a cornerstone of future technological progress for mankind. By focusing on the development of aeronautics and astronautics and working to use both to improve aerospace engineering as a whole, the potential for innovation sees no terrestrial limits. Aerospace engineering continues to play a pivotal role in improving space travel, and as it sees no limits, humans will continue to climb higher in beautiful studies of aerospace engineering.

Work Cited:

What Is Aerospace Engineering?” Penn State Department of Aerospace Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, https://www.aero.psu.edu/academics/undergraduate/what-is-aerospace-engineering.aspx.  Accessed 11 Jan. 2025.

“Aerospace Engineering.” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/technology/aerospace-engineering.  Accessed 11 Jan. 2025.

“Aerospace Engineer.” CareerExplorer, https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/aerospace-engineer/. Accessed 11 Jan. 2025.

Anderson, John D. Introduction to Flight. 9th ed., McGraw Hill, 2020