Educating the Aerospace Engineer of 2016

The U.S. aerospace industry is changing rapidly, from vertically integrated development and manufacturing to “large system integration ” as their main business. Driven by global competition, the new capabilities also enable the realization of some grand dreams of humanity. This paper lays out two scenarios and argues that leadership will reach or exceed the optimistic scenario. This scenario is used to gauge implications for engineering education. The needs for depth and breadth must be balanced. Skills in developing business cases, teamwork and cross-disciplinary learning must be addressed. Emphasis must shift from measuring “teaching ” to “learning”, “applying ” and “innovating”. Examples of modern “best-practices ” are used to lay out some of the essential elements for the new aerospace engineering education