Aerospace engineering is one of the choices available for Mech Eng students.  Before you get carried away by the thought of all the exotic aircraft you might be studying, bear in mind that 90% of the examples will relate to the A380 – which is pretty much the new Tacoma Narrows.

Here it is - looking all ominous (and badly-photoshopped...)

Year 3

Semester 1

The first half of the year is just the same as the first 2 years of the course, with the exception of no design!  This is either good or bad news depending on your love/hate of design, but does mean that there’s comparatively little coursework.  The more astute readers will have noticed that it also means an extra module of theory – bringing the total to 5 exams at the end of term.  That’s one fun Christmas break to look forward to…

Aerospace Structures 1

Structures – nothing changes really.  This is pretty much just a continuation of Solid Mechanics 4, with a little emphasis on aircraft (though not much).  Despite this, the stuff you’ll learn is actually both important and interesting, so pay attention at the back there.  There’s 3 distinct sections, each with a different lecturer – Fatigue, Shear/Tension Fields and Buckling/Composites.  The latter of these is the most in-depth, and although it looks daunting the actual exam questions aren’t that bad – providing you’ve done a few past papers!  By comparison, the shear flow questions are utterly baffling, and are best avoided if at all possible.  The fatigue stuff is pretty simple – there’s only a limited range of questions you can be asked.

This module also has the distinction of having a piece of coursework(!) to do – although sadly not with any physical lab to go with it.  Instead, you’ll be spending your time staring at an Excel spreadsheet and a photocopied handout as you calculate wing loading on a large airliner.  The second part of it involves coming up with your own optimisation techniques which is admittedly more exciting – it just would be nice to actually do something…

Aircraft Propulsion

If Structures was just a continuation of Solid Mech 4, then Propulsion is simply an extension of Thermofluids 4.  Same lecturer, same style, same topic (pretty much) – though none of this is a particularly bad thing.  If you enjoyed Thermofluids then there’s much to like here – plenty of in-lecture examples and lots of historical background for you to sink your teeth into.  In fact, there’s probably a bit more background than you might be expecting – the first tutorial sheet consists of 20(!) technical essays to write – a selection of which form the first question on the exam.

Aerodynamics

Aircraft Stability and Control

Aircraft Performance and Design

Semester 2

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Year 4

After that gratuitous picture of a plane, I have absolutely no idea what happens here – suggestions on a postcard please.