The aerospace industry accounts for over $12 billion as Georgia’s largest export and generates $57.5 billion in annual economic impact as its second-largest manufacturing industry.
Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering plays a pivotal role in this success and in advancing emerging technologies and educating a workforce to ensure the industry’s continued growth.
- Georgia Tech’s aerospace programs rank No. 1 among public universities and No. 2 overall.
- With 2,300 students enrolled, the aerospace program is the largest in the nation.
- Georgia Tech produces more AE Ph.D. students than any other university – 12.5% of all the aerospace doctorates in the nation.
It Starts With Education
From startups to industry staples, the state is home to over 800 aerospace-related companies, including Delta Air Lines, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon, and Rolls-Royce, which support over 200,000 jobs — thousands of which are held by Georgia Tech alumni.
Anticipating the industry’s ever-changing needs, the school overhauled its curriculum in 2015. The result, says Mitchell Walker, professor and William R.T. Oakes Jr. Chair of the Guggenheim School, is a program designed to produce career-ready graduates who will support the future of aerospace in Georgia and around the world.
“In an era where everything is highly technical in nature and deeply connected, Georgia Tech has done a commendable job in building an academic experience that is both highly technical and entrepreneurial, showcasing the connectivity between engineering, computing, business, design, and the liberal arts, and educating thousands of students at scale. So, if you bring a company here, you can feel confident that you’ll find a workforce full of talent that wants to stay in the Southeast to make sure those companies do well,” he said.
Mitchell says that as Georgia competes with states like California, Texas, and Florida for aerospace-related investments, higher education can make a difference in building a ready workforce to complement business-friendly practices at the state level.
Technology-Driven Advancements
As technology changes, the program continues to adapt. Georgia Tech has become a leader in the artificial intelligence space, highlighted by the launch of the AI Makerspace on campus and the introduction of an AI minor with applications in aerospace engineering.
Among the 40 new aerospace facilities constructed in Georgia in the past decade is the new 10,000-square-foot Aircraft Prototyping Laboratory in Georgia Tech’s North Avenue Research Area. The facility houses an electric powertrain lab, a propulsion system test cell, an avionics lab, a composites fabrication area, and a high-bay integration space capable of housing prototype aircraft with wingspans up to 20 feet. Showcasing its potential for collaboration, the space is home to a NASA-funded project — RAVEN (Research Aircraft for eVTOL Enabling Technologies) to explore, design, build, and fly an electric vertical takeoff and landing research aircraft.
Ongoing aerospace research sponsored by the U.S. Army, Navy, and other federal defense partners has AE researchers designing the next generation of aircraft, while the Georgia Tech AE Propulsion and Combustion Group explores and develops new technologies to power those vehicles.
Georgia Tech researchers are also leading efforts in autonomy, working to create revolutionary vehicles to become a safe, reliable part of everyday life: public service aircraft for search and rescue, emergency response, and fire suppression; air taxis for regional passenger flights; and autonomous drones for cargo delivery, public safety, and national defense.
The Next Generation
While conducting industry-shaping research and expanding the program to accommodate the most aerospace engineering students in the country, the Guggenheim School is currently operating in facilities that date back to the 1930s – 1960s. Plans are underway for the construction of a new state-of-the-art, 225,000-square-foot aerospace building that will further cement Georgia Tech’s status as a driving force in aerospace.
“It sends a message to the rest of the country about how seriously we take this opportunity. Georgia Tech and the state of Georgia are making a huge investment, and now is the time to plant the flag to say aerospace in the United States should be happening in our state — from manufacturing to building to educating,” Mitchell said.
Along with increased classroom and collaborative lab spaces, the facility, tentatively planned for 2030, will feature a drop tower to simulate microgravity and space-like conditions, a clean room for the construction of spacecraft, and upgraded wind tunnels for the testing and design of new aircraft, which will be accessible to Tech students as well as students from other Georgia universities.
