An Overview of Aerospace and Flying
One of the most common ways that people interact with aerospace technology today is through commercial airlines. As an increasingly accessible means of both domestic and international transportation, you can’t pass by the multi-billion commercial flight industry when talking about flying. However, aerospace encapsulates much broader fields as well that might be easily overlooked.
While many consumers choose crowded commercial airlines as a means of transportation, those with hefty amounts of cash can choose to opt into more privacy by purchasing their own jet. For just $2 million, one can afford a comfortably-fitted mini jet for a family of five. The private jet industry might not cater to an enormous audience, but it is a growing one with much room for advancement. The article linked above notes that $2 million is a considerable improvement over the previously cheapest personal jet which cost $5 million. Meanwhile, other areas of aerospace carry much less daunting price tags.
Flying miniature RC airplanes is a wickedly cool hobby to practice. Enthusiasts will proudly tell you all about their collections and experiences. But don’t be fooled by the sound of these “miniature” planes: some can reach speeds of up to 451 mph and travel to similarly astounding heights. With such formidable capacities, one wonders whether it isn’t possible to turn RC airplanes into pilotable ones without skyrocketing the price tag to $2 million. And hobbyists are not the only ones who fly for fun: on the flipside of the airline industry are pilots who love their work.
Over the past few months I’ve grown familiar with the incredibly informed community over at Reddit’s r/flying, which brings together military, commercial airline, hobbyist and other pilots. Their FAQ is loaded with answers to a myriad of questions and concerns, making it a perfect starting point for both the vaguely curious and the committed future pilot. You can find anything from serious discussions on safety and pictures of concerning radars to gorgeous views and newly licensed pilot posts through this community. And if the aerospace of industry and hobby don’t suit your preferences, there is yet another enormous sector to explore: research.
As someone who is contemplating getting a Personal Pilot License and/or experimenting with the applications of aerospace technology, I’ve done a bit of research on, well, research. The military is one of the first stops for anyone interested in aerospace research. With sometimes generously funded facilities and resources, they offer plenty of research opportunities in many sectors of militaristic operations, of which aerospace is one. NASA also has similarly valuable resources in this field. But if working directly with NASA over in sunny California at Ames Research Center doesn’t sound enticing enough, some universities also have their own programs in aerospace or closely related fields (sometimes thanks to partnerships with the military). Cal Poly SLO has awesome resources for engineers, one of which is their very own wind tunnel for testing out aeronautical prototypes. It’s fairly difficult to find wind tunnels and similar facilities outside a proper military/NASA research base, so if given the opportunity, universities can be excellent places for research.
Aerospace covers a much bigger playing field than just commercial airlines: it covers the whole sky (hah)! But in all seriousness, aerospace, or flying, is a field concerned with ideas and physical spaces that in some respects differ considerably from those more common to everyday life. Just the monitors in a commercial airplane cockpit can be overwhelming to understand, let alone the plethora of buttons beside them and the physics of the turbines and wings those buttons control. However, flying is a space that invites exploration and (hopefully) generates excitement for both the current and prospective hobbyist, pilot, passenger, and veteran. With so many different sectors, it is difficult not to get involved in some aspect of today’s aerospace technology, and hopefully this proximity to the field serves as fuel (hah) for the minds of tomorrow’s innovators and avid hobbyists alike.
