Aeronautical Engineering BEng (Hons) degree

Program Overview

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Overview

On our Aeronautical Engineering course, you will be able to specialise in subjects that will be vital to the future of aviation, which go far beyond traditional passenger transport aircraft. There are many exciting challenges facing the sector, from finding environmentally sustainable methods of propulsion, to increasing automation, that allows unmanned aircraft to complete an ever-increasing range of tasks. This course will prepare you for a career tackling these challenges facing aviation today, and well into the future.

On this course, you can study topics such as Autonomous Vehicles, Sensor Fusion, Machine Learning, Noise Control, Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics, among many others. These are underpinned by learning the fundamentals of engineering and analysis techniques, equipping you for a career not only in the aeronautical and automotive sectors, but many others too.

As part of the course, students gain experience of testing and flight procedures by undertaking a flight test course, that includes up to four flights in an aircraft equipped as a flying laboratory. Our course contains modules on Aircraft and Gas Turbine Design too; these allow you to put the theory you have learned into practice as you learn how to produce detailed engineering designs to fulfil specific design briefs. In your final year, you will work as part of a team to design an aircraft of the future and work on your own original research project, working to solve a real-world engineering challenge.

Our courses are taught within the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, where our teaching staff are engaged in pioneering research into air and ground transport, which helps keep our course up to date. We bring together outstanding facilities, superb teaching, and strong links with industry to make sure you are completely ready for your future career.

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Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough

Explore the exciting and unique experiences available to you as an Aeronautical Engineering student.

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What's the difference between MEng and BEng?

The first two years of the BEng and MEng courses share the same format and structure, with a high level of aeronautical-specific content from day one, underpinned with fundamental engineering topics.

The MEng courses differ from the BEng by offering the opportunity to study technical and management topics at a more advanced level, plus the option of studying a modern language. The individual project in the final year of the MEng is a more significant piece of work than for the BEng and may be carried out at an overseas university or in conjunction with an industrial sponsor.

All our courses can be studied with or without the industrial placement year. Courses which lead to MEng take four or five years (depending if an industrial placement year is included) whilst the BEng courses take three or four years. The placement is normally taken after the second year, but MEng students can opt to take it after the third year instead.

It is possible to transfer from a BEng to an MEng from the commencement of the course up to the end of the second year, providing that the transfer progression criteria have been met.

Aeronautical Engineering MEng

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Program Outline

There are many exciting challenges facing the sector, from finding environmentally sustainable methods of propulsion to increasing automation that allows unmanned aircraft to complete an ever-increasing range of tasks.

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The programme aims to:

• Equip you with the specialist knowledge and skills to meet the current and future challenges in the aerospace industry
• Provide a broad-based programme in aeronautical engineering, encompassing all major disciplines
• Enable you to translate theoretical and technological knowledge to provide practical solutions and designs
• Enhance your graduate employability to enable you to secure the career of your choice.

This includes up to four flights in an aircraft equipped with a flying laboratory. In your final year, you will work as part of a team to design an aircraft of the future and work on your own original research project, working to solve a real-world engineering challenge.

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Course structure:

First Year Units

Mechanics (10 credit hours)

• Covers Newton's laws of motion and equilibrium, kinematics, the principle of virtual work, and introduction to stress and strain, beam and bending analysis in statics and dynamics including vibration and simple control theory.
Aerodynamics and Aerospace Structures (10 credit hours)
• Introduces fluid statics, introductory low speed and compressible flow, fundamentals of aeronautics including drag and lift, lift devices such as airfoils and wings.
Additionally, stress, strain, elastic properties, shear forces and bending moments are presented. Introduction to structural testing is covered also. Computing (10 credit hours)
• Introduces fundamentals of programming in MATLAB.
Thermofluids (10 credit hours)
• Thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics.
Fluid statics dynamics, kinematics of an ideal fluid. Governing conservation equations for mass, momentum and energy. Aircraft Systems and Performance Design (10 credit hours)
• Provides the fundamental concepts relating to the operation, function and design of fixed and rotary wing aircraft and their components.
Introduces engine, avionics and environmental systems and includes an introduction to aircraft performance parameters, power plant types and propulsive devices. Mathematics 1 & 2 (20 credit hours)
• Covers algebra, geometry, calculus, differentiation and integration, complex numbers.
# Second Year Units

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Semester 1 Units

Structural Design Project (10 credit hours)

• Design, manufacture and test of complete structural units with emphasis on composite and light weight materials and computer aided engineering (CAE) techniques
Dynamics and Vibration (10 credit hours)
• Covers single and two degrees of freedom systems, transient response, forced vibrations, resonance, vibration isolation
Engineering Mechanics (10 credit hours)
• Newtonian mechanics including particles and systems
Compressible Flow (10 credit hours)
• Fundamental equations governing inviscid compressible flow, the isentropic assumption.
Shock waves - normal and oblique to the direction of motion, flow through convergent, convergent-divergent, nozzles. One dimensional flow including isentropic flow in ducts. Systems Reliability Assessment (10 credit hours)
• Statistical background behind reliability assessment: probability theory, random variables & processes, reliability measures.
Failure data analysis: distributions, estimation of population parameters & model selection, goodness of fit test. Nonrepairable systems reliability, repairable systems reliability & maintainability concepts, Fault Tree and Markov analysis.

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Semester 2 Units

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Compressible Flow

(10 credit hours)

Control Engineering

(10 credit hours)

Turbomachinery and Propulsion

(10 credit hours)

Fixed and Rotary Wing Aircraft Performance

(10 credit hours)

Electrotechnology

(10 credit hours)

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Assessment

There are many challenges facing the aviation industry. From finding environmentally sustainable methods of propulsion to increasing automation that allows unmanned aircraft to do more and more different tasks. This course will prepare you for a career tackling these challenges.

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Teaching

Loughborough University London is part of Loughborough University, a top 10 university in the UK. They are based at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, on the former Athletes Village site of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Loughborough University London offers world-class facilities in a convenient, easily accessible location.

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Some of their key facilities include:

• A new 3D immersive cave and VR lab.
• High-performance computing and computer modelling.
• Wind tunnels.
• Students studying here consistently perform well in national student surveys; in 2023 they were awarded a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework for delivering consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes.
They have excellent links with industry. This will allow you to make the most of career opportunities when you graduate. They offer a work placement year on this BEng Degree programme. This enables you to gain practical skills, professional experience, and contacts that can enhance your graduate prospects.

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Careers

This course will equip you for careers in all branches of the aerospace industry, and for roles with airline operators, Government research establishments and armed forces. The aviation industry is forecasted to double in size over the next 15 years. This will leave you well placed for involvement in a fast-paced and increasingly important sector of the global economy. Graduates from this course have gone on to take up roles at companies including Airbus, British Airways, Caterpillar, EasyJet, Mercedes, Royal Navy, and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Here are some other companies and organisations that recruit from Loughborough:

• British Aerospace Airbus
• British Airways
• Rolls Royce
• QinetiQ
• Ministry of Defence
• European Space Agency
• Meggitt Airborne Systems.
• Aerospace Research and Development Engineer.
• Aerodynamics.
• Aerospace Structures Analyst.
• Control Engineer.
• Systems Engineer
• Avionic Systems.
• Computational Fluid Mechanics.
• Pilot
Loughborough University was named number 1 in the UK for graduate prospects and graduate salaries by The Complete University Guide 2024, so you will be very well prepared when applying for career opportunities. Here are some other possible career opportunities after you graduate with this degree: > Aerothermal Designer - designing the hot side of jet engine parts > Avionics Engineer - electronic systems on the aircraft including cockpit systems > Design Engineer - aircraft, helicopters or spacecraft design > Maintenance Engineer - repair and overhaul the various systems on aircraft/spacecraft > Materials Engineer - ensuring that all of the composite parts will hold the aircraft together in flight as well as perform their function > Propulsion Engineer - design of jet engines > Stress Engineer - analysis of stresses in an aircraft as it takes off, flies or lands > Structures Engineer - design of all of the composite or metal structure (body) of the aircraft

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UK fees Full-time course per annum £9,250 Placement year Approx. 20% of the full-time fee International fees Full-time course per annum £28,600 Placement year Approx. 20% of the full-time fee University fees and charges can be paid in advance and there are several methods of payment, including online payments and payment by instalment. Additional costs While the cost of your tuition covers lots of things, it doesn’t cover everything. For instance this course doesn’t cover the cost of any stationery, printing, books or re-assessments which you might need. What's included in your tuition costs Fee status Accommodation and hall fees