Increased Demand

As the volume of production increases, the demand for trained engineers also goes up. The airplane industry is just one of many industries clamoring for the services of the graduating engineer. Severe shortages in the supply of these men red many industries to set up their own training programs, or to help schools produce more engineers by giving grants and aids and initiating cooperative advanced study programs.

The Boeing Corporation was one of many companies to realize that the gap between college classrooms and "out in industry was a major drawback in modern technical education. The professors couldn't relate their subjects to practical aspects of engineering, and industry would eventually have had to foot the bill for additional training.

Boeing, along with other manufacturers, set up a program whereby college professors and faculty members would work for them during the summer to see how industry operates. Then, when the professors went back to school, the companies expected them to pass the knowledge gained on to their students.

According to Boeing officials, their program has resulted in mutual advantage for them and the colleges. The professors go back to teach with more knowledge of industry and the practical aspects of engineering. This added insight helps them turn out efficient graduate engineers without the "traditional green of new sprung college men." A. A. Soderquist, administrative engineer in charge of the Boeing program, calls the summer study plan "a long range gamble that has already started to pay off. Even if we weren't getting better oriented men, just the work the professors do during the summer makes the program profitable for us."

In airplane manufacturing corporations, the engineer occupies an esteemed position. Again, Curtiss-Wright's brochure sums up an industry-wide attitude: "The engineer is afforded an exceptional opportunity to work on the more challenging engineering projects of today with the latest and most complete laboratory and testing equipment of its kind in the world, to associate with engineers who are outstanding in their fields, and to gain personal prestige for himself as a professional engineer."

Opportunity are open to men from almost every field of engineering skill and knowledge. Although the greatest requirement is for mechanical engineers, in most cases the fundamental engineering education is a more important consideration that the particular engineering major or degree.

The large aircraft companies desire people of "high academic standing, who have participated in extra-curricular activities, can work with others, and have a specific interest in one of the fields of investigation under study. The must be able to take orders and have potentiality for leadership, and organizational ability." (Hughes Aircraft Corporation Handbook --1953)

Specialization

The mere list of the specialized fields in which men can find accupation in the aircraft industry shows at once both the great diversification on the industry and its extreme draft toward specialization. These interests fall under three large classifications: design, research, and production.

The groups of study under the general heading of design include: armament, equipment, heating and ventilating systems, anti-iceing and defrosting systems, electrical power systems, electronic equipment, controls, and hydraulics.

Under research, which overlaps design on certain points, is the study of acoustics to eliminate interference with radio and radar equipment from weather and other electrical systems, and projects in aerodynamics on stability and control involving use of wind tunnels. Other research projects include improvements in power plant performance, new fuels, structural strength, and elimination of vibration.

Production control and industrial engineering require less pure science and more knowledge of problems in work load, manpower allocation, machine tool requirements, and timetable and machinery needs determination.

The opportunities open may be summed up as the actual design of the airplane, research, analysis, development, and testing of new concepts in the field, and development of improved production processes, quality and techniques.

May companies have branched out into other field, and require men with additional skills. A typical company, North America Aviation Corporation, has become interested in guided missile and atomic energy research. Their primary needs are graduates of technical schools who specialize in "autocontrols, propulsion fuels, reactor, sold state, and irradiation physics, and reactor engineering." The process of specialization has penetrated this industry so much that two men may work on similar problems, one on rocket fuel and the other on design of the rocket motor, and never come in contact with each other. The industry-wide proportion of the various specialties is 30 per cen mechanical, 22 per cent electrical, 21 per cent aeronautical, 8 per cent civil, and the rest scattered specialties.