<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I was considering getting a Masters in Aero Engineering but now I'm 2nd guessing myself. I was wondering your opinions on the long term outlook of the aerospace industry and how stable the engineering jobs would be. Considering the government deficit, defense spending will very likely be cut in the future. This will obviously effect aerospace companies and make engineering jobs in the industry far less stable. Furthermore, China's advancing aerospace industry will eventually deliver a significant blow to the international contracts of the big US aerospace comapanies (Boeing, Grumman, Lockheed).</p>
<p>Am I just focusing on the negative stuff, or is aerospace a dangerous field to go into right now? Maybe everything I said is just completely wrong (hopefully).</p>
<p>Aerospace is always going to be an up and down industry. If you are a good engineer, you will be able to have steady employment. On the fringe talent wise and it’s not so rosey.</p>
<p>^ HPuck 35 is right, however, the outlook for the commercial aerospace industry is going to be fabulous for at the next 5 years, as demand from the Middle East and Asia drive commercial jetliner sales as well as US and European airlines buyng more fuel efficient aircraft. The outlook for military aerospace and business jets, however, is mixed.</p>
<p>As long as people continue to travel by air there will be a need for aerospace engineers. I don’t foresee air travel going away any time soon.</p>
<p>Many moons ago when I entered the aerospace engineering job market, I was told the following “truth” about the industry; “The floor space an airplane project occupies is a constant.” </p>
<p>The one telling me this said to imagine a large hanger. Initially the floor is covered with the desks of the engineers designing the airplane. At some point hardware begins to arrive at one end of the hanger and at the other, engineers begin to get pushed out. After a time, the vast majority of the floor is occupied by the manufacturing process and the engineering office is a tiny one off in the corner to address small changes and manufacturing discrepencies. </p>
<p>I didn’t find the “truth” to be in fact true, but pretty close in the commercial airplane world. Not quite so much in the military side as the changes and upgrades come even before the initial designs are completed. The space side always seems to need a fair amount of engineering, even in mature systems. This seems to be changing as the space world moves move from a totally government sponsered world to a commercial driven one.</p>
<p>Just thought you’d enjoy the “truth” about the industry and maybe get a smile out of it.</p>
<p>In what world do you live in that commercial airplanes are not constantly being modified and upgraded? Granted the military side has more (due to changing requirements more often than not) but the commercial side is thick in it as well.</p>