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Major · Military Technologies & Applied Sciences

Keep the planes flying from the ground — a niche aviation-support degree offered at a single college

Aerospace Ground Equipment Technology covers the systems that service aircraft before and after flight: power carts, hydraulics, HVAC, fluid power, and corrosion control. It is a tiny major — 68 bachelor's completions annually, all from Liberty University. Bachelor's completers report roughly $72,903 in median five-year earnings.

Schools offering
1
Annual completions
68
Typical degree level
Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$63k

About this major

Aerospace Ground Equipment Technology is the applied science of keeping aircraft serviceable between flights. The curriculum covers ground-based systems and equipment that support both aviation and space operations — power units, tow vehicles, hydraulic test stands, air conditioning and refrigeration carts, fluid power systems, and corrosion control — combined with instruction in electronics, computer science, hazardous materials, industrial safety, and maintenance management. Programs emphasize hands-on work against specific equipment families, typically aligned with military and FAA standards, and students learn to diagnose, service, and manage the tools that make flight operations possible.

This is a program that tends to attract students with mechanical intuition who are drawn to aviation but prefer the operational side to the flying side or the design side. The coursework rewards methodical troubleshooting, comfort with technical manuals and schematics, and tolerance for repetitive precision work. Many students enter through military backgrounds — Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps ground-support roles — using veteran education benefits to formalize skills already acquired in service. Others come in as civilians targeting defense contracting or airport ground-services careers.

The field is remarkably concentrated: IPEDS reports 68 total completions annually, all from a single bachelor's-granting college — Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. That narrow footprint matters for prospective students, because it effectively collapses your program choice to one institution at the bachelor's level. The most direct career destination is aerospace engineering and operations technologist or technician (SOC 17-3021), which BLS pegs at a $79,830 median wage with 8.1% projected job growth — a solid trajectory in a field that typically requires only an associate's for entry.

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
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

$63k

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

Associate's

$54k

Bachelor's

$73k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you are more interested in how aircraft get serviced and turned around than in how they are designed, if you have a mechanical aptitude that shows up in troubleshooting real equipment rather than abstract math, if you are comfortable working under FAA and military maintenance standards where procedure matters as much as intuition, if you are coming out of military service and want to formalize the ground-support skills you already have, or if your career target is specifically defense contracting, federal civilian aviation work, or airline ground operations rather than engineering design.

Think twice if you want design or engineering autonomy rather than operations and maintenance — the typical career destination is a technician role, and BLS lists the occupation's typical entry education as an associate's, which raises fair questions about whether a bachelor's at a single college is the right value equation. Think twice also if geographic or institutional choice matters to you: with only Liberty University awarding bachelor's in this exact CIP, your options narrow immediately. If you want broader aviation career flexibility, a general Aviation Maintenance Technology program with an FAA A&P certification may open more doors; if your real interest is in designing rather than supporting flight systems, Aerospace Engineering is the relevant major.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Aerospace Ground Equipment Technology

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

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Liberty University Lynchburg, VA 0 68 68
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Intelligence, General

1,676 completions/yr

Cyber/Electronic Operations and Warfare

485 completions/yr

Air and Space Operations Technology

105 completions/yr

Intelligence, Command Control and Information Operations, Other

65 completions/yr

Strategic Intelligence

41 completions/yr

Space Systems Operations

19 completions/yr

Explosive Ordinance/Bomb Disposal

14 completions/yr

Signal/Geospatial Intelligence

5 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Aerospace Ground Equipment Technology majors actually study?
The curriculum focuses on the machines and systems that support aircraft on the ground rather than in flight — power generators, tow tractors, hydraulic test stands, air conditioning and refrigeration units, fluid power systems, and corrosion control. Coursework includes electronics, basic sciences, quantitative methods, hazardous materials handling, industrial safety, and maintenance management. Students learn to diagnose and service specific ground-support equipment families, often against military and FAA standards, with significant hands-on lab time.
Where can I actually study this major?
The IPEDS data shows just one college awarding bachelor's degrees in this exact CIP code: Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, which produced 68 completions in the most recent reporting year. That single-institution footprint means your choice is essentially binary — Liberty or a related field. Many students who do this work in practice come through military technical schools or associate-level aviation maintenance programs rather than a bachelor's in this specific CIP.
What jobs do Aerospace Ground Equipment Technology graduates end up in?
The direct occupation match is Aerospace engineering and operations technologists and technicians (SOC 17-3021), with a $79,830 median wage and projected 8.1% job growth — above average. Notably, BLS lists that occupation's typical entry education as an associate's degree, not a bachelor's, so the bachelor's is not strictly required for this role. Graduates typically find work with defense contractors, commercial airlines' ground-support divisions, airport ground-services companies, and federal agencies. Many entrants come through military service (Air Force, Navy) before transitioning to civilian contracting.
Is the bachelor's worth it if the occupation only requires an associate's?
The earnings data suggests a meaningful premium: associate-level completers in this CIP family show $53,697 median five-year earnings versus $72,903 for bachelor's — a gap of about $19,200. That gap is real, but it may reflect self-selection (bachelor's completers working in larger organizations or moving into supervisory/management roles) rather than the degree itself. Given only one college awards this bachelor's, a broader aviation-maintenance associate's or an ASE/FAA credential path may offer similar career access at lower cost.
How competitive is the job market for ground-support roles?
The underlying occupation — aerospace engineering technicians — shows 8.1% projected growth, above the economy-wide average of roughly 4-5%. Supply from this specific CIP is tiny (68 annual graduates from one school), so commodity competition is minimal; the real competition comes from adjacent pools, including military-trained technicians entering the civilian workforce, graduates of aviation maintenance technology programs, and A&P-certified mechanics. Hiring cycles track defense budgets, commercial airline capacity, and aerospace manufacturing demand.
What's a reasonable next step after this degree?
Most graduates move directly into technician roles at defense primes (Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman), airline ground-services operations, or federal employers like the FAA and DoD civilian service. A common alternate path is earning FAA Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) certification to broaden hiring eligibility, or pursuing supervisory roles after 3-5 years in the field. For those drawn to deeper engineering work, master's-level aerospace or mechanical engineering programs can bridge to design roles rather than pure operations.