Aerospace Engineering, which is a specialized branch of mechanical engineering, represents a broad spectrum of subjects. One can specialize in spacecraft structures and systems, electronics and guidance systems, propulsion (which involves) fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, and materials science and engineering related to the other areas.
See -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_Engineering
A good list of topics in Aerospace Engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aerospace_engineering_topics
There might be course notes available for specific courses.
Beyond that, there are a plethora of codes for structural analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thermodynamics, orbital mechanics, CAD/CAM and so on. The software is not free, but commercially available. Someone has to get paid to develop software, because it takes thousands of man-hours to develop.
A good source of informatio for aeronautical and astronautical science and engineering is AIAA -
www.aiaa.org.
Aerospace engineering is the branch of engineering that concerns aircraft, spacecraft and related topics. It is often called aeronautical engineering, particularly when referring solely to aircraft, and astronautical engineering, when referring to spacecraft .
Aerospace engineers design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft , and missiles and supervise the manufacture of these products. Those who work with aircraft are called aeronautical engineers, and those working specifically with spacecraft are astronautical engineers. Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space exploration, often specializing in areas such as structural design, guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or production methods. They also may specialize in a particular type of aerospace product, such as commercial aircraft, military fighter jets, helicopters, spacecraft , or missiles and rockets, and may become experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics, propulsion, acoustics, or guidance and control systems.
Some of the elements of aerospace engineering are:
* Aerodynamics - the study of fluid flow around objects such as wings or through objects such as wind tunnels (see also lift and aeronautics).
* Dynamics and engineering mechanics - the study of movement, forces, moments in mechanical systems.
* Mathematics - as most subjects within aerospace engineering involve equations and mathematical manipulation and derivations, a solid and comprehensive study of mathematics is required to enable effective learning in the other modules.
* Electrotechnology - the study of electronics within engineering.
* Propulsion - the energy to move a vehicle through the air (or in outer space) is provided by internal combustion engines, jet engines and turbomachinery, or rockets (see also propeller and Spacecraft Propulsion).
* Control engineering - the study of mathematical modelling of systems and designing them in order that they behave in the desired way. As aircraft flight control systems are becoming increasingly complex, they can be studied as a separate module.
* Aircraft Structures - design of the physical configuration of the craft to withstand the forces encountered during flight. Aerospace engineering aims very much at keeping structures lightweight.
* Materials science - related to structures, aerospace engineering also studies the materials of which the aerospace structures are to be built. New materials with very specific properties are invented, or existing ones are modified to improve their performance.
* Aeroelasticity - the interaction of aerodynamic forces and structural flexibility, potentially causing flutter, divergence, etc.
* Avionics - specifically concerning the design and programming of any computer systems on board an aircraft or spacecraft and the simulation of systems. Navigation equipment may be the focus of this study.
* Risk and reliability - the study of risk and reliability assessment techniques and the mathematics involved in the quantitative methods.
* Noise control - the study of the mechanics of sound transfer. Required as noise levels are a massive consideration in the current aerospace industry.
The basis of most of these elements lies in theoretical mathematics, such as fluid dynamics for aerodynamics or the equations of motion for flight dynamics.
