Aerospace Engineering is a multidisciplinary discipline that deals with the design, development, and manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft. Central topics are aerodynamics, which investigates the behavior of air around surfaces; propulsion, which deals with engines and propulsion systems for aircraft and spacecraft; and materials science, which investigates materials employed in aerospace structures. Fluid dynamics and thermodynamics are crucial to understanding fluid and energy system behavior at high speeds and in space.
Other areas of study include control systems, which are the study of automated systems for stability and navigation, and avionics, the study of the electronics that govern the vehicle. Structural analysis is also necessary to understand the strength and stability of aerospace structures. Aerospace engineers learn about spacecraft design, the creation of systems for exploration in space, and the use of advanced mathematical and computational techniques for simulation and testing.