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Major · Engineering Technologies

Aerospace tech where the test cell meets the hangar floor

Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering Technology is the engineering-technology overlay on aircraft and spacecraft work — graduates support flight-system design, prototype testing, manufacturing, and instrument calibration rather than originating designs. Reported on 31 campuses with about 498 completions a year, with median 5-year earnings near $75,656 across associate’s and bachelor’s graduates.

Schools offering
31
Annual completions
498
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$76k

About this major

Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering Technology/Technician (CIP 15.0801) prepares you to apply basic engineering principles and technical skills in support of engineers developing, manufacturing, and testing aircraft, spacecraft, and their systems. The CIP definition is concrete: aircraft- and spacecraft-systems technology, design and development testing, prototype and operational testing, inspection and maintenance procedures, instrument calibration, test-equipment operation, and report preparation. Translation — graduates do the hands-on work that turns aerospace designs into actual hardware that flies, rather than originating those designs from a blank sheet.

The major is offered at both the associate’s and bachelor’s level on 31 campuses, producing about 498 completions a year. The structure is two-track by design. An associate’s degree, often delivered through a community-or-technical college near an aerospace ecosystem, gets you onto a production floor, into a test cell, or into satellite-integration and ground-support-equipment work. A bachelor’s — typically a BSET (Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology) — leads toward manufacturing-engineer-technician roles at OEMs, lead-tech and supervisory work, and the clearance-eligible defense and NASA positions where a four-year credential is the common filter.

The distinction from full engineering matters before you enroll. Engineering Technology programs are accredited by ABET’s Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC). Aerospace Engineering (CIP 14.0201) — the named-engineer track — is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) and is the standard route toward Professional Engineer licensure and the “aerospace engineer” job title at $134,830 median. ETAC graduates can sit for the PE in some states with extra experience requirements, but not in every jurisdiction. The trade-off is concrete: less time on differential equations and analytical aerodynamics, more time on shop floors, in test cells, around CAD workstations, and inside actual airframes and spacecraft hardware.

The occupational landscape attached to this CIP is split. Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians (17-3021, $79,830 median, +8.1% growth, associate’s) is the steady core destination and the one driving demand growth. Mechanical drafters (17-3013, $68,510 median, -6.5% growth, associate’s) is a real BSET destination but faces automation headwinds on the drafting-only side of the work. The growth story is the +8.1% on the aerospace-tech SOC, anchored in commercial launch cadence, DoD-aerospace sustainment, and reshoring of tier-1 supplier capacity.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Mechanical drafters $69k -6.5% Associate's degree
Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians $80k +8.1% Associate's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$76k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$65k

Bachelor's

$83k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you have spent serious time around model rockets, RC aircraft, drones, or a high-school AIAA or rocketry team and want that to extend into a career, if you read accident-investigation reports for fun and care about why a system failed rather than just that it failed, if you would rather climb inside a satellite-integration clean room or a flight-test cell than sit at a desk solving differential equations, if you are interested in a clearance-eligible career path inside DoD or NASA and meet the citizenship and background requirements, and if you want a credential that maps clearly to either Purdue’s BSET pipeline (104 grads/year), American Public University’s military-friendly program (94), Embry-Riddle Worldwide (28), or one of the regionally-clustered associate’s feeders near Cape Canaveral, Pittsburgh, NASA-Stennis, or the El Paso defense corridor.

Think twice if your endpoint is the aerospace engineer title at $134,830 median and PE licensure as a clean default — Aerospace Engineering (CIP 14.0201) is the standard route and the licensure pathway is unambiguous. Reconsider in another direction if your real interest is hands-on aircraft maintenance and you want the FAA Airframe and Powerplant license — Aircraft Maintenance Technology (CIP 47.0607) is the trade track for that work, and it is a different credential, not a worse one. Weigh citizenship and background-investigation reality honestly: a meaningful share of aerospace-tech jobs sit behind a Secret or higher clearance, and graduates who cannot clear are funneled into commercial-aviation and commercial-space roles with thinner job density. Confirm your school teaches the systems your target employer uses — composite-airframe lay-up, CMM inspection, NDT (non-destructive testing) certifications, NICET, FAA Part 107, or specific OEM tool training — before assuming a regional brand will carry you.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering Technology/Technician

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN 0 104 104
American Public University System Charles Town, WV 10 94 104
Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics West Mifflin, PA 93 0 93
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide Daytona Beach, FL 0 28 28
University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla Aguadilla, PR 25 0 25
LeTourneau University Longview, TX 0 24 24
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Cincinnati, OH 23 0 23
Nunez Community College Chalmette, LA 17 0 17
Eastern Florida State College Melbourne, FL 17 0 17
Western Technical College El Paso, TX 14 0 14
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Construction Engineering Technology/Technician

3,657 completions/yr

Mechanical/Mechanical Engineering Technology/Technician

2,735 completions/yr

Manufacturing Engineering Technology/Technician

1,695 completions/yr

Electromechanical/Electromechanical Engineering Technology/Technician

1,104 completions/yr

Computer Engineering Technology/Technician

892 completions/yr

Automotive Engineering Technology/Technician

610 completions/yr

Nuclear Engineering Technology/Technician

257 completions/yr

Environmental/Environmental Engineering Technology/Technician

176 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

Is Aerospace Engineering Technology the same as Aerospace Engineering or aircraft mechanics?
No, and the difference shapes your career ceiling. Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering Technology (CIP 15.0801) is the engineering-technology track, accredited under ABET’s Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) — applied work supporting design, testing, manufacturing, and calibration. Aerospace Engineering (CIP 14.0201) is the four-year ABET-EAC engineering CIP and is the standard route to the named “aerospace engineer” job title at $134,830 median. Aircraft Maintenance Technology (CIP 47.0607) is the FAA-Airframe-and-Powerplant trade track for hands-on aircraft mechanics. The packet anchors the tech track to two SOC destinations: aerospace engineering and operations technologists/technicians (17-3021, $79,830, +8.1% growth) and mechanical drafters (17-3013, $68,510, -6.5% growth).
Associate’s or bachelor’s — which makes more sense?
The packet shows associate’s graduates earning about $64,949 five years out and bachelor’s graduates about $82,852 — a roughly $17,900 spread. The two listed target occupations both name an associate’s degree as the typical entry credential, so a two-year degree is sufficient to walk onto a production floor, into a test-cell control room, or into a drafting team. A bachelor’s — most often a BSET (Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology) — opens manufacturing-engineer-technician roles at OEMs, lead-tech and supervisory tracks, and the security-clearance-eligible defense-contractor positions where four-year-degree filters are common. Purdue (104 bachelor’s grads/year), American Public University System (94), LeTourneau (24), and Embry-Riddle Worldwide (28) are the largest BSET feeders in the packet.
What do graduates actually do day-to-day?
The work splits across production, integration, and test. On the production side, you support manufacturing engineers at aerospace OEMs (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace) and tier-1 suppliers — running first-article inspections, tracking nonconformances, supporting tooling rollouts. On the integration side, you work satellite or airframe integration, ground-support-equipment maintenance, and instrument calibration at NASA centers (Kennedy, Johnson, Marshall, Goddard, Ames, Glenn) or at DoD facilities (NAVAIR, USAF civilian engineering-tech roles, Army Aviation). On the test side, you run flight-test instrumentation, dynamometer cells, wind tunnels, and engine test stands. The CIP definition is specific: vehicular-systems technology, prototype and operational testing, inspection and maintenance procedures, instrument calibration, test-equipment operation, and report preparation.
How important is a security clearance, and can I get one with this degree?
It matters more here than in almost any other engineering-tech field. A large share of aerospace-tech jobs sit inside DoD primes, NASA centers, and classified programs that require Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI clearance. The clearance itself is granted by the government, not the school, and requires US citizenship plus a clean SF-86 background investigation (financial history, foreign contacts, drug history). Bachelor’s graduates at clearance-eligible programs can see roughly a 15–25% wage premium over uncleared peers in the same role. Programs sited near major defense ecosystems — Eastern Florida State College (Melbourne, near Cape Canaveral), Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (PIT region defense supply chain), Embry-Riddle, and Purdue — feed into clearance-eligible employers most directly. If your background or citizenship status will not support a clearance, the commercial-aviation and commercial-space lanes (Boeing commercial, Airbus, GE Aerospace commercial engines, ULA suppliers) remain open.
How are commercial space and reshoring affecting this major?
They are the durable demand drivers behind the +8.1% projected growth for aerospace engineering and operations technicians (17-3021). Commercial launch cadence has roughly tripled since 2020 driven by SpaceX, Rocket Lab, ULA Vulcan, and Blue Origin, and each launch cadence increase requires more production-floor technicians, integration techs, and ground-support-equipment specialists than it does new engineers. The DoD side adds NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance), B-21 Raider production, sustainment of aging fleets (KC-46, F-35 production, F-15EX), and a large FY budget for missile and hypersonics work. Reshoring of supply chains for tier-1 aerospace components, partly under DoD-industrial-base initiatives, is putting new manufacturing capacity into Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Washington — exactly the regions where this CIP’s schools cluster. AI is changing CAD/PLM workflows, supply-chain optimization, and predictive maintenance, but production-floor, satellite-integration, flight-test instrumentation, and certification-and-airworthiness work remain hands-on and durable.
Where do graduates of these programs actually end up?
The packet shows two distinct school types. Bachelor’s-granting programs concentrate at Purdue (104 grads/year, the largest feeder), American Public University System (94 — heavy military-and-veteran enrollment), Embry-Riddle Worldwide (28, the flagship aerospace-tech name), and LeTourneau (24). Associate’s-only feeders include Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (93 grads, oldest aviation-school lineage in the US), University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla (25, near aerospace-supplier Lufthansa Technik facility), Cincinnati State (23, GE Aerospace pipeline), Nunez Community College (17, Louisiana NASA-Stennis and Boeing-Michoud feeder), Eastern Florida State (17, Cape Canaveral region), and Western Technical College (14, El Paso, near defense and missile work at Fort Bliss). Pick a school whose location maps to the aerospace ecosystem you actually want to enter — the regional clustering matters more here than in most engineering-tech fields.