The minor Aerospace Engineering & Maintenance provides you with a broad introduction to the various disciplines in aerospace engineering and maintenance. You will learn that maintenance plays a major part throughout the entire lifecycle of an aircraft as opposed to simply replacing components or troubleshooting. Before putting pen to the drawing board, engineers must answer a myriad of questions concerning the accessibility of areas and components for inspection, testing, adjustments, replacement or removal. These questions are mainly answered during the design and engineering phase of airplane development. That is why engineering and maintenance are so closely linked.
Aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering focuses on designing and building machines that fly. It is one of the newest branches of engineering, and began in the 19th century with the first experiments in powered flight. As technology progressed, 2 specialties emerged; aeronautical engineering, which involves designing aircraft such as powered lighter-than-air craft, gliders, fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters; and astronautical engineering, which focuses on the design and development of spacecraft.
Aerospace maintenance
Aerospace maintenance is the overhaul, repair, inspection or modification of an aircraft or aircraft component. Maintenance may include such tasks as ensuring compliance with Airworthiness Directives or Service Bulletins. The maintenance of aircraft is highly regulated, in order to ensure safe and correct functioning during flight. National regulations are coordinated under international standards, maintained by bodies such as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The maintenance tasks, personnel and inspections are all tightly regulated and staff must be licensed to perform the tasks they carry out.