The next era of flying: electric air taxis, hydrogen and battery airplanes, quieter supersonic jets, and the fuels and landing pads that make them possible.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Electric Aircraft Propulsion Engineer: Designs the motors, batteries and power electronics that let airplanes and air taxis fly on electricity. Typical pay $140k.
Hydrogen Aircraft Systems Engineer: Works on airplanes that burn hydrogen or use fuel cells, so flying produces no carbon dioxide. Typical pay $140k.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Scientist: Turns used cooking oil, farm waste or captured carbon into jet fuel that cuts emissions. Typical pay $120k.
Supersonic Aircraft Engineer: Designs a new generation of faster-than-sound passenger jets with quieter sonic booms. Typical pay $140k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Air Taxi (eVTOL) Pilot: Will fly passengers on short electric flights across cities and to airports. Typical pay $90k.
Vertiport Planner: Plans the rooftop and ground landing pads where air taxis will take off and charge. Typical pay $88k.
Electric Aircraft Charging Technician: Installs and maintains the high-power chargers that will refuel electric aircraft at airports and vertiports. Typical pay $54k.
Airship Ground Crew Member: Travels with a blimp from city to city, catching its lines on landing and keeping it safely moored at its mast. Typical pay $45k.
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.