Carol L. Cook
Engineers are concerned with everything from initial planning and design to final assembly and testing. More than 30 types of engineers are employed in the industry: electronic, electrical, industrial, chemical, nuclear, mechanical and aerospace engineers are among the large classifications.
Aerospace engineers usually specialize in a particular area of work such as structural design, navigational guidance and control instrumentation and communications, simulation, propulsion testing or production methods, or in a particular type of transport such as private planes, passenger planes, jet-powered military aircraft, rockets, satellites, or manned space capsules.
Aerospace scientists work with engineers in the pre-production stages. Other scientists working in the industry include physicists, mathematicians, chemists, metallurgists, and astronomers.
A college degree in the appropriate specialty is the minimum requirement to become an engineer or scientist.
Assisting the scientists and engineers in developing aerospace vehicles with greater reliability, speed, range, and carrying capacity are the technicians. Technicians fill such important jobs as laboratory aides, drafters, electronic aides, mathematics aides, production planners, computer programmers, and flight simulators. For the most part, technicians are educated in technical institutes or junior colleges, although some workers may qualify as technicians after several years of diversified experience or military on-the-job training. Some technicians may become engineers with years of appropriate work experience and some college training, usually at night.
After the scientists, engineers, and technicians have completed the initial planning and design, model builders make a scale model of the aerospace craft, which is thoroughly tested under simulated conditions. A full-sized prototype is then constructed. This is tried out on the ground, and then it is time for a test pilot to combine the knowledge of a student of aeronautics with the coordination of a Grand Prix racing driver.
More than half of all aerospace production is for the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Thousands of federal employees are responsible for initiating the design of many aircraft and involved in the testing of all aircraft. Every model must meet strict federal specifications. If test results prove satisfactory, production can begin, usually under the direction of a prime contractor who may employ thousands of workers.
Many of the individual parts and sub-assemblies are made by sub-contractors. About half of all aerospace employees work in plant jobs. Because of the uniqueness of its products, the industry is very dependent on highly trained workers who are flexible enough to move from one custom job to another.
There are skilled workers who shape complicated parts from sheets of thin metal using hand tools or several machines. Less skilled sheet metal workers may use a single machine to fabricate parts required in large quantities.
Most skilled machinists lay out the work and set up and operate several types of machine tools. Other machine tool operators may do more repetitive work on one machine. Because many aerospace plants make their own machine tools, skilled workers such as jug and fixture builders and tool and die makers are needed.
After all the parts and components are ready, they are put together by assemblers. These workers may fit together major sub-assemblies, for instance, joining the wing or the tail to the fuselage, or they may install components such as fuel systems or flight controls. They are involved with riveting, drilling, bolting, and welding. A large proportion of assemblers are semi-skilled and do repetitive work, but some skilled mechanics and installers perform diversified work on experimental prototype or special aircraft.
Although some assembly may be noisy or carried out in cramped quarters, working conditions are good for most plant employees. Factories are usually new, brightly lit, and well-ventilated, and the number of on-the-job accidents is low.
Because products are extremely complex and accuracy is critical, parts are inspected and tested at all stages of manufacturing. Inspectors are highly skilled and may operate sophisticated testing equipment. Some specialize in a particular component or phase of production; others may work in a team under the direction of a chief mechanic. Skilled inspectors generally have several years of machine shop experience. Other inspectors may be trained to conduct simpler tests.
Mechanics who do the final check-out of an aerospace craft before its first flight may gain experience working in earlier stages of production or receive all their training in check-cut work.
Training for other plant work varies from a few days on the job for the less skilled assembly operations to several years of apprenticeship for such workers as machinists, tool and die makers, and electricians. Most aerospace plants support some kind of formal training either by holding their own classes or covering tuition for outside courses so that workers can keep up with changing technology and advance to higher positions.
Percentage-wise, the number of unskilled workers in the industry is low and continuing to decrease, although plants do employ many material handlers, maintenance workers, and custodial employees.
As in all industries, managerial, administrative, clerical, and other office personnel are also needed. In aerospace, however, many managerial positions require a background in science or engineering.
The industry also has special needs for medical personnel in a variety of jobs. Researchers study the effects on man of high speeds and space travel, physiological planners make sure that space capsules and aircraft are designed with human requirements in mind, and practicing doctors and nurses work at the larger aerospace plants.
Another important group of workers are the technical writers and illustrators who produce manuals and other literature describing the operation and maintenance of the aerospace products and their many components.
For the most part, salaries are very good in the industry. Many workers are represented by unions, and most employees receive a full quota of benefits that range from paid vacations to hospitalization coverage to pension.
Job demands, however, can fluctuate quickly because production levels and employment rates depend largely on funding by the federal government. For example, in one five-year period, aerospace employment decreased by one-half. Many workers, including scientists, engineers, and technicians, have been laid off during production cutbacks. The employment rate is expected to increase slightly in the near future, and there will continue to be plenty of opportunities in a variety of jobs for people with a wide range of talents and interests.
If any of the jobs in the aerospace industry were appealing to a young person, on the most part, it would be very rewarding to enter such a field.
Overall, the Aerospace Industry is most concerned about a shortage of engineers during the next decade. Cornell University predicts a shortage of 560,000 engineering graduates by the year 2010.
This shortfall will be exacerbated because a large percentage of those graduating in the next decade will be immigrants whose clearance to work on defense projects will be difficult. Moreover, non-U.S. citizens overwhelmingly dominate the pool of graduates with advanced degrees in science and engineering. Because of those shortages, engineering salaries will be very competitive in the 1990’s.
Aerospace leaders, leaders in government, industry and the military recognize that in the fact of demographic trends as much as 85% of America’s new workers will be women, minorities and immigrants. Thus, the industry will have to draw its technology professionals from this supply. To this end, the industry has taken the lead in implementing multi-cultural management.
Aerospace employers are going to have to find new ways to recruit, manage, and retain this diverse group. Perhaps, more importantly, the industry must start to ensure the progression of women, and minorities to the middle and upper-management ranks.
The shrinking number of young people entering the work-force coupled with the rising technical skills required by the Aerospace Industry make the task of utilizing minority workers particularly critical between now and the start of the 21st Century.
The U.S. Commercial jet transport manufacturers took just half of 1989 to smash all-time records for orders met in 1988. Forecasters see a free world market for as many as 13,000 new large transports through the year 2000.
The commercial aircraft boom will fuel demands for more pilots, mechanics, flight controllers and other aviation professionals. The airlines will hire more than 60,700 pilots by the end of the 1990’s. Another strain on pilot availability in the U.S. is the commercial aviation boom sweeping the Pacific Rim nations.
Pacific Rim air traffic may quadruple in the next 10 years, as the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 40% of worldwide traffic. Japan Air Lines have already tapped the U.S. market to fill its voracious pilot needs. As of late 1989, almost 70% of the pilots hired by the airlines were military-trained.
Engineers and scientists will continue to find rewarding careers in the military’s civilian programs over the coming decade, besides healthy compensation packages and the chance to work in attractive locations from coast to coast.
California, Washington, and Texas are states with large aerospace manufacturers.