Aerospace Engineering Certificate - Curriculum 118 (DL)

Program Officer

CDR Caleb MacDonald

Code 74, Watkins Hall, Room 107

(831) 656-2033, DSN 756-2033

caleb.macdonald@nps.edu

Brief Overview

The Aerospace Engineering Certificate is designed for a practicing engineers with a STEM undergraduate degree to provide foundational knowledge to begin working on topics in aerospace & missile systems.

Uniquely relevant defense examples and applications include missile design and aircraft systems integration

The objective of this program is to provide graduate education in the field of Aerospace Engineering in order to produce graduates that have a working knowledge and technical competence for the operation, design, and acquisition of modern military aerospace systems.

Convenes

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

Program Length

Four quarters

Outcomes

The Aerospace Engineering program is designed to meet the specific needs of the U.S. Military and its international partners with a broad-based graduate education in the areas of aerodynamics, flight mechanics, propulsion, flight structures, and systems integration with a focus on missile design, autonomous systems, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. Additionally, officers receive graduate level instruction in aircraft/missile design.

Apply U.S. military standards and industry practices to solve engineering problems and analyze structural components of aerospace systems.

Be able to analyze and design aircraft and missile guidance and control systems, including feedback stabilization schemes using classical and modern control techniques.

Understand the principles and operating characteristics of fixed wing, rotary wing, and missile propulsion engines and be able to analyze the performance of rocket motors through knowledge of the behavior and design characteristics of their individual components.

Integrate all of the disciplines of aerospace engineering into a design of a missile or autonomous system rotorcraft in response to a realistic set of military requirements, specifications, constraints and cost limitations. The design must include considerations for safety, reliability, maintainability and survivability.

Graduate Certificate Requirements

The academic certificate program must be completed within three years of admission to the program.  A student must maintain a 3.0 GQPR to be awarded a certificate. 

Required Courses

4-course technical graduate courses, nominally over one year, focusing on relevant topics in Aerospace Engineering.  Students must take 4 of 6 course listed below, depending on start quarter. 

Course NumberTitleCreditsLecture HoursLab Hours
ME3611Mechanics of Solids II

4

0

ME3205Missile Aerodynamics

4

1

ME4751Combat Survivability, Reliability and Systems Safety Engineering

4

1

AE4452Advanced Missile Propulsion

4

1

ME4703Missile Flight and Control

4

1

ME4704Missile Design

3

2