Also called: Aerodynamics Engineer
Studies how air flows over wings, bodies, and engines and shapes the aircraft to cut drag and stay stable.
You spend the day staring at colorful flow pictures from computer models, hunting for spots where air separates and creates drag. Some weeks you are at a wind tunnel watching smoke trails and pressure readings stream in from a scale model. Then you write up which shape wins and why.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in aerospace engineering; a master's in fluid dynamics is common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics.
Growing faster than average (about 6% over 10 years). Rolled into BLS aerospace engineers; growth shown is that category.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI surrogate models predict airflow in seconds, so fewer analysts per program; wind-tunnel and flight correlation stay human.
Classes: AP Physics C, AP Calculus, Computer science, Statistics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2011.
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.