Aerospace Information

On September 1st, 2011 the International Association of Machinist and
Aerospace Workers contacted President Obama in order to help preserve
the Aerospace and Defense Industry and its workforce from substantial
downsizing that defense budget cuts will bring. But it may have been too
little too late as a combination of issues such as the culmination of
the Iraq war, Afghanistan winding down and an unprecedented national
deficit at hand were enough for the congress to agree last month on
approving cutting military spending by $350 billion over the next 10
years. The fiscal 2012 defense appropriated bill that has already been
passed by the U.S. House of Representatives is a testimony to what’s
coming with $119 billion already trimmed from defense spending,
representing a steep 24.6% decline from 2011 .

This and similar news stories have led to a
contraction in defense industry orders from aerospace manufacturers. The
aerospace manufacturing sector is feeling the pinch as a significant
percentage of their revenues stem from government contracts. Yet,
commercial sector orders are set to rapidly expand with new commercial
orders and the increasing demand within emerging markets. A news-worthy
bright spot within this sector has been Delta Airline’s order for 100
Boeing narrow-body jets in a deal estimated to be worth more than $8.5
billion. The ramping up of orders is helping to improve the economic
outlook for not only commercial aircraft manufacturers but also
aerospace suppliers who provide services to such as aerospace painting,
non-destructive testing and anodized coating.

At
first glance, the Delta deal would seem to be an uptick for the
American aerospace industry. Upon closer observation, the deal appears
to be no more than a stabilizing counter in light of more recent news
that American Airlines opened up their purchasing options to foreign
aircraft manufacturers and awarded EADS the “largest aircraft order in
history” for 260 Airbus A320s. But everyday new silver linings arise
within America’s commercial aerospace sector as new global markets open
up. One juggernaut of a market that has recently begun to open up its
aerospace industry to private participation is India. Boeing has already
established a strong presence in Indian aerospace manufacturing by
partnering with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The HAL partnership
coupled with $1 billion worth of orders that Boeing expects to receive
from India by 2017 exemplifies the American aerospace industry’s
resilient ability to find opportunities for growth that will offset
dwindling government defense contracts.

The
Chennai-based CADD Centre, Asia’s largest network of CAD training
institutes, is launching two new Master Diploma programmes exclusively
for Automotive Design and Aerospace Design Industry. The programmes
would provide comprehensive training to students pursuing degree and
diploma engineering programmes, and working professionals on the current
product lifecycle management concepts and tools relevant to the booming
Indian automotive and aerospace industry. The courses are offered at
most its branches across the network.
With a total duration of over
450 hours, the Master Diploma in Automotive Design introduces automotive
design, production concepts, and training on Computer aided design
tools such as Pro/Engineer, CATIA, ANSYS, NX CAD, NX CAM, and NX
NASTRAN. Course fee is Rs.79900 plus taxes including study materials.

The
Master Diploma in Aerospace Design is a 464-hour programme that trains
students on Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, ANSYS, NX CAD, NX CAM, NX NASTRAN,
besides providing a comprehensive overview of the aerospace design
processes. Course fee is Rs. 79900 plus taxes including study materials.

Students
pursuing both these programmes would get to learn Geometric
Dimensioning and Tolerancing, a language used to precisely communicate
mechanical engineering drawings. CADD Centre would provide authorized
courseware for all software tools, and exclusive workbooks on automotive
design, and aerospace design.

Commenting about the programmes,
Mr S Karaiadiselvan, Managing Director, CADD Centre, said that there are
huge job opportunities for engineers in automotive and aerospace
industry in India. The size of India’s automotive industry is estimated
at US$ 72 billion. It employs around 15 million people. The automobile
industry is expected to invest over $17 billion in the next 5 years.
According to an industry report, India’s aerospace & defense
industry would be close to $45 billion by 2015.

However, the
growing skill gap, and lack of employable engineers might affect the
growth of the automotive and aerospace industry. Though the country has a
pool of qualified engineering, science and computer graduates, they
have to be introduced to, and trained in the latest design, and
production concepts and CAD tools.

Mr
Selvan added that CADD Centre’s Master Diploma courses in automotive
and aerospace design are created with inputs from the industry. The
curriculum for the software tools are authorized by the concerned
software developers, and the faculty are regularly trained in current
industry practices.

The Master Diploma in Automotive Design
imparts technical skills to automotive professionals engaged in
developing, manufacturing and testing vehicles and their systems. The
students would be provided with an exclusive practice workbook which
contains an overview and exercises of various components specific to
automotive domain to strengthen the understanding of students on the
fundamental aspects on automotive engineering. Similarly, the Master
Diploma in Aerospace Design enhances the students design and analysis
skills that go into the making of airplanes, aircraft and spacecrafts.
The course also provides an overview of various components specific to
aerospace.

Upon completion of the Master Diploma, students can
become design, analysis engineers in the domains of automotive and
aerospace industries and the institute’s placement cell will help the
students in fetching jobs after successful completion of the programmes.

The aerospace industry however, refers to the organizations and
manufacturing units that design and build vehicles that cut through the
atmosphere and have permeated today into various other sectors including
travel, tourism, logistics, telecommunications, civil aviation, capital
goods and defense supply. ranked as one of the largest manufacturing
industries in the world with respect to revenue generation, on the socio
political front too this industry has created opportunities for the
youth of today with industrial design schools, ability for research and
development.

After the first flight by Wright brothers in December
1903, manufacturing of aircraft were taken up in France and later by
other entrepreneurs. The 21st century saw the entry of the engineering
services companies from Brazil, China , Japan & Russia take over the
reigns in aerospace manufacturing. The growing needs of industry for a
more global know-how in aerospace manufacturing engineering have paved
the way for the birth of a globalized and technologically enhanced
industry.

On the economic front, countries have seen a growth in
indigenous research and development in this sector. The government
establishments in the country have facilitated the growth of the
aerospace industry by subsidizing the technological innovations in the
aerospace industry and providing manufacturing spaces under the special
economic zones in India.

In India, as multinationals try to set
up operations in this sectors to make use of highly qualified talents
available in the country, the government builds up ties to plug its
technology gap. Hence the governments allow tax breaks to the small and
medium business entities to be able to partner with the multinationals.
Further, the new age technologies and software has facilitated easier
and more efficient precision machining and aerospace testing the key
components in industrial machinery manufacturing.

Considering
the fact that aircrafts face sever weather conditions, the engineering
services companies integrate machining facility with state of the art
manufacturing processes. This ensures that aero engines, aerospace
structural parts, automotive engine components, sub assemblies, and
precision machined parts will be strong and durable.

Such
machining technology from the leaders of the industry involves complete
integration of design and manufacturing with large scale fabrications
similar to the ones used in power plant engineering companies and
industrial sectors. Further, with strong vendor qualification and
monitoring process and technologically innovative utilitarian models
entering the aerospace manufacturing industry helps customers achieve
quality products through cost-effective methods.