Aerospace Engineering

Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Perhaps, like da Vinci, you’ve always been obsessed with airborne machines: Gliders and lighter-than-air craft. Fixed-wing airplanes and jets. Autogyros and helicopters. Or even rockets, satellites, and spacecraft. Aeronautical engineers generally design aircraft to fly within the Earth’s atmosphere, while astronautical engineers design the technology for spacecraft to fly beyond the atmosphere. Either way, the sky’s the limit.

Why choose Berkeley?

At Berkeley Engineering, we offer a modern aerospace engineering major that combines comprehensive topical coverage, technical rigor and practical relevance. This major has been designed from the ground up for students who aspire to become leaders in an emerging era of aerospace technologies, including sustainable aviation, autonomous flight and space exploration. With a UC Berkeley aerospace engineering degree, you can find employment in industry — such as multinational corporations that design and manufacture aerospace systems at scale, or mid-size and small private companies that develop targeted technologies — or in federal government agencies such as NASA, the FAA or federal defense organizations.

The aerospace engineering degree program began instruction with an inaugural freshman class in Fall 2022. Current Berkeley Engineering students are not eligible to transfer into the new major. However, there is an Aerospace Engineering minor already available through the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Interested? Learn more about the Aerospace Engineering program.