AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

also called aeronautical engineering, or astronautical 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.