Aerospace engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and operation of aircraft and spacecraft, encompassing aeronautical engineering within Earth atmosphere and astronautical engineering beyond it. It matured as a distinct discipline in the first half of the twentieth century, driven first by heavier than air flight and then by rocketry and space exploration. Sir George Cayley, working in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag that affect any atmospheric flight vehicle, and the compound term aerospace engineering was first defined in 1958 to treat the atmosphere and outer space as a single realm.
Facts
Core ConcernThe design and operation of aircraft and spacecraft. 1 Core PrincipleAerospace engineering treats aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, materials science, structural analysis and manufacturing as one interacting system rather than separate disciplines, because a vehicle that must fly cannot optimize any one of them in isolation. 2 Disputed
Origin YearAeronautical engineering, a narrower predecessor concerned only with atmospheric flight, dates to the early 1900s; aerospace engineering, unifying atmospheric and space flight, dates to the late 1950s, alongside the founding of NASA in 1958. Aerospace Engineering
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Associated With
Aerogel, Materials Aerogel insulation is used in spacecraft thermal protection and cryogenic tank insulation, a second field beyond its primary materials-engineering field.
Invented and patented the turbojet engine independently of von Ohain.
Independently invented the turbojet engine used in German aircraft.
Co-built and flew the first powered airplane.
Aircraft and spacecraft programs are among the largest and earliest adopters of formal systems engineering practice.
Titanium alloy primary-use names aerospace airframes and engine components
Wind Tunnel, Inventions Field-to-technology association verified live; FROM end owned by fields section
Field-to-technology association verified live; FROM end owned by fields section
Includes
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Duralumin (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Open Questions
Source Gustave Whitehead (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source 2. Aerospace Engineering (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationOverview section
It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering.
Lead section, opening definition of aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering.
Lead section, terminology paragraph
"Aeronautical engineering" was the original term for the field.
History section, Cayley paragraph
Cayley is credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag, which affect any atmospheric flight vehicle.
View the Source A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954- Includes: The Airplane
- Includes: The Jet Engine
- Includes: Frank Whittle
- Includes: Hans von Ohain
View the Source Duralumin (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: DuraluminView the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
Did Gustave Whitehead achieve powered, controlled flight near Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1901-1902, before the Wright brothers' 1903 flights at Kitty Hawk?
Wikipedia's Gustave Whitehead article states "controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright brothers in 1903." Connecticut's legislature officially recognized Whitehead as "Father of Connecticut Aviation" in 1968; North Carolina's General Assembly passed a 1985 resolution giving the claim "no credence." Mainstream aviation historians side with the Wright brothers, but the dispute remains live enough to have produced competing state resolutions decades apart.
What would resolve this Physical evidence (a surviving aircraft, verifiable photograph, or independently corroborated eyewitness record) of a genuinely powered, controlled 1901-1902 Whitehead flight, which mainstream aviation historians say does not exist.
Wikipedia contributors, Gustave Whitehead (Wikipedia)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is aerospace engineering sometimes called rocket science, and how did its name change over time?
Aeronautical engineering was the field's original name, covering aircraft alone. As flight technology extended into outer space, the broader term aerospace engineering came into use to cover both the aeronautical and astronautical branches; the astronautics side in particular is often called rocket science in everyday speech.
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