Why does ASCE have an Aerospace Division? 1

[Ingenuity]

Curious why ASCE has a division of Aerospace Engineering?

Nothing against our aero brothers/sisters (my younger brother is an aeronautical engineer) but seems 'distant' from the practice of civil engineering: Link

Based upon the brief statement that follows I guess it was setup for knowledge/technology transfer with regards materials and related items:

 

[concretemasonry]

One of the best positions I have had was with an aerospace firm (Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation. That was a the first part of my six year plan (3- 2 year jobs). I was a graduate with a BSCE for a school with a five year curriculum (University of Minnesota).

During my first position, I was able to get two years of company paid night graduate school (2-3 credit classes per term) plus dinner and mileage every night of school. My instructor as USC was a man that I worked with 4 years later on the site analysis of a nuclear power plant that was on an island in the Mississippi River where there was an subsurface water flow that varied with the seasons (small world).

The position consisted of the design and very, very frequent rush modifications of the test stands and little advance planning because of the space race at the time (1963-65). The structural work was very unusual since a rocket test stand was an open steel structure about 150' high that cantilevered out from the side of a mountain side that had several 40,000 gallon fuel and oxidizer tanks that had firing cycles of the 225,000 pound engine as long as 7 minutes where the gravity loads were burned off and the engine was stopped. Also, we had to design the drainage and recovery of the cooling water (many thousand gpms) and the storage basins. The steel structural steel as mix of normal steel and stainless - angles, channels (even 14" columns that were "beefed up") almost on a weekly or monthly basis because of different engines.

Since the demand for engineers was very high every graduate had numerous offers depending on the number of interviews. I had one friend that did not know what to do, so I gave him the name of a recruiter. He also got a job with North American Aviation in the aircraft division. He ended up designing air frames for jets and transports and used the same structural program that I used for analyzing a rocket test stand for varying dynamic loads.

Civil engineering can and has long tentacles into may different areas. I annually attend the annual college reunions for the Engineering school and always meet others that have varied experiences that involve the various facets of Civil Engineering.

Dick



Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.