Fundamentals aerospace enginee
Engineering
The application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to design, build, and
maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials, and processes. It may encompass using
insights to conceive, model, and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or objective. The discipline
of engineering is extremely broad, and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering,
each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of technology and types of application.
The foundations of engineering lays on mathematics and physics, but more important, it is reinforced
with additional study in the natural sciences and the humanities. Therefore, attending to the previously
given definition, engineering might be briefly summarized with the following six statements:
• to adapt scientific discovery for useful purposes;
• to create useful devices for the service of society;
• to invent solutions to meet society’s needs;
• to come up with solutions to technical problems;
• to utilize forces of nature for society’s purposes
• to convert energetic resources into useful work.
On top of this, according to current social sensitivities, one should add: in an environmentally friendly
manner. Aerospace engineering can be defined as: a primary branch of engineering concerned with the
research, design, development, construction, testing, and science and technology of aircraft and
spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches aeronautical engineering and
astronautical engineering. The former deals with aircraft that operate in Earth’s atmosphere, and the
latter with spacecraft that operate outside it.
Therefore, an aerospace engineering education attempts to introduce the following capabilities
• Engineering fundamentals (maths and physics), innovative ideas conception and problem solving skills,
the vision of high-technology approaches to engineering complex systems, the idea of technical system
integration and operation.knowledge in the technical areas of aerospace engineering including
mechanics and physics of fluids, aerodynamics, structures and materials, instrumentation, control and
estimation, humans and automation, propulsion and energy conversion, aeronautical and astronautical
systems, infrastructures on earth, the air navigation system, legislation, air transportation, etc.
• The methodology and experience of analysis, modeling, and synthesis.
• Finally, an engineering goal of addressing socio-humanistic problems.
As a corollary, an aerospace engineering education should produce engineers capable of the following :
• Conceive: conceptualize technical problems and solutions.
• Design: study and comprehend processes that lead to solutions to a particular problem including
verbal, written, and visual communications.
• Development: extend the outputs of research.
• Testing: determine performance of the output of research, development, or design.
• Research: solve new problems and gain new knowledge.
• Manufacturing: produce a safe, effective, economic final product.
• Operation and maintenance: keep the products working effectively.
• Marketing and sales: look for good ideas for new products or improving current products in order to
sell.
• Administration (management): coordinate all the above.
Thus, the student as a future aerospace engineer, will develop his or her professional career
accomplishing some of the above listed capabilities in any of the activities that arise within the
aerospace industry
Aerospace activity
It seems to be under common agreement that the aerospace activities (in which aerospace engineers
work) can be divided into seven groups.
• the industry, manufacturer of products;
• the airlines, transporters of goods and people;
• the military air forces, demanders of high-level technologies;
• the space agencies, explorers of the space;
.. .• the infrastructures on earth, supporter of air operations;
• the research institutions, guarantors of technological progress;
• the international organizations, providers of jurisprudence.
1.The aerospace industry
The aerospace industry is considered as an strategic activity given that it is a high technology sector with
an important economic impact. The Aerospace sector is an important contributor to economic growth
everywhere in the world. The european aerospace sector represents a pinnacle of manufacturing which
employed almost half a million highly skilled people directly (20.000 in Spain) in 2010 and it continuously
spins-out technology to other sectors. About 2.6 million indirect jobs can be attributed to air transport
related activities and a contribution of around C250 billion1 (around 2.5%) to european gross domestic
product in 2010. Therefore, the aerospace industry is an important asset for Europe economically, being
a sector that invests heavily in Research and Development (R & D) compared with other industrial
sectors. The aerospace sector is also an important pole for innovation.
The aerospace industry accomplish three kinds of activities: aeronautics (integrated by airships,
propulsion systems, and infrastructures and equipments); space; and missiles. Grosso modo, the
aeronautical industry constitutes around the 80-90% of the total activity.
The fundamental characteristics of the aerospace industry are:
• Great dynamism in the cycle research-project-manufacture-commercialization.
• Specific technologies in the vanguard which spin-out to other sectors.
• High-skilled people.
• Limited series (non mass production) and difficult automation of manufacturing processes.
• Long term development of new projects.
• Need for huge amount of capital funding.
• Governmental intervention and international cooperation.
The linkage between research and project-manufacture is essential because the market is very
competitive and the product must fulfill severe safety and reliability requirements in order to be
certified. Thus, it is necessary to continuously promote the technological advance to take advantage in
such a competitive market. The quantity of units produced a year is rather small if we compare it with
other manufacture sectors (automobile manufacturing, for instance). An airship factory only produces
tens of units a year; in the case of space vehicles the common practice is to produce a unique unit.
These facts give a qualitative measure of the difficulties in automating manufacturing processes in order
to reduce variable costs
2.Airlines
Among the diverse elements that conform the air transportation industry, airlines represent the most
visible ones and the most interactive with the consumer, i.e., the passenger. An airline provides air
transport services for traveling passengers and/or freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which
to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit,
e.g., Oneworld, Skyteam, and Star alliance. Airlines vary from those with a single aircraft carrying mail or
cargo, through full-service international airlines operating hundreds of aircraft. Airline services can be
categorized as being intercontinental, intra-continental, domestic, regional, or international, and may be
operated as scheduled services or charters.
The first airlines were based on dirigibles. DELAG (Deutsche LuftschiffahrtsAktiengesellschaft) was the
world’s first airline. It was founded on November 16, 1909, and operated airships manufactured by the
zeppelin corporation. The four oldest nondirigible airlines that still exist are Netherlands’ KLM,
Colombia’s Avianca, Australia’s Qantas, and the Czech Republic’s Czech Airlines. From those first years,
going on to the elite passenger of the fifties and ultimately to the current mass use of air transport, the
world airline companies have evolved significantly. Traditional airlines were state-owned. They were
called flag companies and used to have a strong strategic influence. It was not until 1978, with the
United States Deregulation Act, when the market started to be liberalized. The main purpose of the act
was to remove government control over fares, routes, and market entry of new airlines in the
commercial aviation sector. Up on that law, private companies started to emerge in the 80’s and 90’s,
specially in USA. Very recently, a new phenomena have arisen within the last 10-15 years the so called
low cost companies, which have favored the mass transportation of people.
The military air forces are linked to the defense of each country. In that sense, they play a strategic role
in security, heavily depending on the economical potential of the country and its geopolitical situation.
Historically, it has been an encouraging sector for technology and innovation towards military
supremacy. Think for instance in the advances due to World War II and the Cold War. Nowadays, it is
mostly based on cooperation and alliances. However, inherent threats in nations still make this sector a
strategic sector whose demand in high technology will be maintained. An instance of this is the
encouraging trend of the USA towards the development of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) in the last 20
years in order to maintain the supremacy in the middle east minimizing the risk of soldiers life.
3.Space agencies
There are many government agencies engaged in activities related to outer space exploration. Just to
mention a few, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) successor of the
Soviet space program), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). For their interest, the focus will be on these last two.The European Space Agency
(ESA) was established in 1975, it is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the exploration of
space. It counts currently with 20 member states: Austria, Belgium, Check Republic, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Nederland, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Moreover, Hungary and Canada have a
special status and cooperate in certain projects. In addition to coordinating the individual activities of
the member states, ESA’s space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through the
participation in the International Space Station (ISS) program (Columbus lab, Node-3, Cupola), the
launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon (probe Giotto to
observe Halley’s comet; Cassine-Hyugens, joint mission with NASA, to observe Saturn and its moons;
Mars Express, to explore mars), Earth observation (Meteosat), science (Spacelab), telecommunication
(Eutelsat), as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana,
and designing launch vehicles (Ariane).
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States
government that is responsible for the civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace
research. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its
predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NASA science is focused on
better understanding of Earth through the Earth Observing System, advancing heliophysics through the
efforts of the Science Mission Directorate’s Heliophysics Research Program, exploring bodies throughout
the Solar System with advanced robotic missions such as New Horizons, and researching astrophysics
topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories and associated programs.United States
space exploration efforts have since 1958 been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing
missions, the Skylab space station, the Space Shuttle, a reusable space vehicles program whose last
mission took place in 2011 (see Figure 2.7), the probes (Pioner, Viking, etc.) which explore the outer
space. Currently, NASA is supporting the ISS, and the Mars Science Laboratory unmanned mission known
as curiosity. NASA not only focuses on space, but conducts fundamental research in aeronautics, such in
aerodynamics, propulsion, materials, or air navigation. Infrastructures on earth In order to perform safe
operations either for airliners, military aircraft, or space missions, a set of infrastructures and human
resources is needed. The necessary infrastructures on earth to assist flight operations and space
missions are: airports and air navigation services on the one hand (referring to atmospheric flights);
launch bases and control and surveillance centers on the other (referring to space missions).
The airport is the localized infrastructure where flights depart and land, and it is also a multi
modal node where interaction between flight transportation and other transportation modes (rail and
road) takes place. It consists of a number of conjoined buildings, flight field installations, and
equipments that enable: the safe landing, take-off, and ground movements of aircrafts, together with
the provision of hangars for parking, service, and maintenance; the multi-modal (earth-air) transition of
passengers, baggage, and cargo.
The air navigation is the process of steering an aircraft in flight from an initial position to a final position,
following a determined route and fulfilling certain requirements of safety and efficiency. The navigation
is performed by each aircraft independently, using diverse external sources of information and proper
on-board equipment. The fundamental goals are to avoid getting lost, to avoid collisions with other
aircraft or obstacles, and to minimize the influence of adverse meteorological conditions. Air navigation
demands juridic, organizational, operative, and technical framework to assist aircraft on air fulfilling safe
operations. The different Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) (AENA in Spain, FAA in USA,
Eurocontrol in Europe, etc.) provide these frameworks, comprising three main components:
• Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS).
• Meteorological services
• Air Traffic Management (ATM).
– Air Space Management (ASM).
– Air Traffic Services (ATS) such traffic control and information.
– Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM).
A launch base is an earth-based infrastructure from where space vehicles are launched to outer space.
The situation of launch bases depends up on different factors, including latitudes close to the ecuador,
proximity to areas inhabited or to the sea to avoid danger in the first stages of the launch, etc. The most
well known bases are: Cape Kennedy in Florida (NASA); Kourou in the French Guyana (ESA); Baikonur en
Kazakhstan (ex Soviet Union space program). Together with the launch base, the different space
agencies have control centers to monitor the evolution of the space vehicles, control their evolution,
and communicate with the crew (in case there is crew).
4.Aerospace research institutions
The research institutions fulfill a key role within the aerospace activities because the development of
aviation and space missions is based on a continuos technological progress affecting a variety of
disciplines such as aerodynamics, propulsion, materials, avionics, communication, airports, air
navigation, etc. The research activity is fundamentally fulfilled at
universities, aerospace companies, and public institutions. Spain counts with the Instituto Nacional de
Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), which is the spanish public research organization specialized in aerospace
research and technology development. It pursues the acquisition, maintenance, and continuous
improvement of all those technologies that can be applied to the aerospace field. There exist “sister"
institutions such the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), or the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States of America (USA), just to
mention a few significative ones.
5.International organizations
In order to promote a reliable, efficient, and safe air transportation, many regulations are needed.
This regulatory framework arises individually in each country but always under the regulatory core of
two fundamental supranational organizations: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and
the International Air Transport Association (IATA) . ICAO was created as a result of the Chicago
Convention. ICAO was created as a specialized agency of the United Nations charged with coordinating
and regulating international air travel. The Convention establishes rules of airspace, aircraft registration
and safety, and details the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel. In the successive revisions
ICAO has agreed certain criteria about the freedom of overflying and landing in countries, to develop the
safe and ordered development of civil aviation world wide, to encourage the design and use techniques
of airships, to stimulate the development of the necessary infrastructures for air navigation. Overall,
ICAO has encourage the evolution of civil aviation.
The modern IATA is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association founded in the Hague in
1919. IATA was founded in Havana, Cuba, in April 1945. It is the prime vehicle for inter-airline
cooperation in promoting safe, reliable, secure, and economical air services. IATA seeks to improve
understanding of the industry among decision makers and increase awareness of the benefits that
aviation brings to national and global economies. IATA ensures that people and goods can move around
the global airline network as easily as if they were on a single airline in a single country.
In addition to the cited organizations, it is convenient to mention the two most important organization
with responsibility in safety laws and regulations, including the airship project and airship certification,
maintenance labour, crew training, etc.: The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in the European
Union and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Spain counts with the Agencia Estatal de
Seguridad Aérea (AESA), dependent on the ministry of infrastructures (fomento). AESA is also
responsible for safety legislation in civil aviation, airships, airports, air navigation, passengers rights,
general aviation, etc.
