What is the difference between aviation and aerospace?

Answer 1

The difference between the aviation industry and aeronautical engineering is this:

The aviation industry is the totality of all that happens in aviation and aerospace. It can include the following components:

1. Aviation and aerospace manufacturing (manufacturing of aviation and space related items for the civil, military and space related segments of the industry);

2. The airlines: major, national, regional and all cargo

3. General Aviation: All flying EXCEPT that done by the military and my the scheduled airlines; and,

4. Government aviation including the military and non-military segments. Non-military aviation in the government sector would include the operation of airports or the regulation of civil aviation, for example.

Aeronautical engineering is a SUBSET (or part of) of the aviation industry. Normally, aerospace engineeers are employed in the aviation and aerospace manufacturing segment of the industry, although some also work for the airlines.

As far as job opportunities, aerospace engineeering in the USA numbers about 50,000 or so jobs out of a total of 2.1 to 2.2 million in aviation overall. The vast majority of jobs in aviation are operational in nature--pilots, flight attendants, aviation technicians, ramp agents, customer service agents, etc. For example, there are about 125,000 airline pilots in the USA. I do not have the worldwide numbers for these categories.....

As for colleges on these subjects: There are excellent aeropsace engineeering programs at MIT, the University of Illinois, Gerogia Tech and Stanford. There are excellent aviation degree programs at Embry Riddle Aero University, the University of North Dakota, Western Michigan University, The Ohio State University, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (where I work) and Parks College of St. Louis University.

...found at:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Aerospace-Aviation-2437/difference-aviation-aeronotical.htm