Also called: Lighter-Than-Air Engineer, Blimp Engineer
Designs and tests the giant helium airships making a comeback for cargo, disaster relief and sightseeing.
You stand inside a hangar so big it has its own weather, checking the carbon-fiber frame of an airship longer than three Boeing 747s. Today you test how gas cells handle a pressure change, then review data from yesterday's flight. If a tether point shows too much stress, you redesign it.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in aerospace or mechanical engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.
Growing faster than average. A few companies are building new airships for cargo and humanitarian work.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Simulation and AI speed up structural design, but building and flight-testing a new kind of aircraft stays human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Engineering CTE, Chemistry.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.