People with aviation careers like that of Aeronautics- have challenged the frontiers of higher speeds, safer, and more economic operations. The results of these challenges are seen in bigger, better, faster aircraft. Space flight's challenge is the unknown. Questions that researchers try to answer through experimentation involve a variety of aspects of space exploration and travel. Some fundamental questions are : How long can humans live in a weightless condition? Is there other life in our galaxy? Practical questions concerning both the research scientists and the engineers are: Will the engine fire as planned? Will the power source continue to produce electricity?
When there is a failure of aviation maintenance jobs, like in the Challenger shuttle disaster, a whole program may be set back for months or years while investigations and testing proceed to ensure safer operations in the future. The aerospace industry includes many widely diverse areas of research and development, manufacture, and end use or operation. Included in the aerospace industry are airplane manufacture, parts of the electronics industry, research both in the university and in industry, and missile and space vehicle manufacture. Some companies specialize in manufacturing or managing the manufacturing of the entire system, usually by subcontracting various phases of the entire operation. Other companies specialize in components, thus becoming subcontractors. Huge plants and small companies manufacture units or small parts.
As to the aircraft jobs and its aviation employment, aircraft for military use, passenger ships and freight airplanes comprise the largest proportion of industry sales. Aerospace manufacturers also produce missiles for the armed forces and spacecraft for use by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Defense. NASA has launched satellites for private communications companies and for other countries. Thousands of subcontractors who are involved with avionics jobs provide parts, supplies, and subassemblies to the principal contractors who build aerospace vehicles for government use or for private business. Eventually, more than 10 percent of airline traffic consists of freight and mail, and use in this area continues to grow. Airlines now transport nine out of every ten intercity first-class letters and millions of parcel post packages. The annual volume of air freight, consisting of some of the world's most valuable goods and many commonplace items, saw a twelve-fold increase in the first two decades of the jet age.
Virtually all flights operated daily by the nation's airlines carry some type of cargo - mail or freight and usually a combination of the two. The freight and mail often are transported in the cargo compartments of aircraft also carrying passengers and their baggage. The combined use of air and truck extends the reach of air freight far beyond the cities served directly by the airlines. The regularly scheduled shipment of goods by air began with an auto manufacturer with the foresight to use air transportation to ensure a timely supply of parts for production lines. Auto parts remain among the major commodities, ranging from household appliances, plastics, and electronic equipment to photographic equipment, newspapers, and other printed matter. Substantial quantities of fresh seafood, fruit, and vegetables also move regularly by air freight. Aircraft maintenance jobs in this operation have been doubled to assure aircrafts' condition for the safety of its regular flight.Wide-body jet freighters offer the capacity to airlift cargoes that could not have been accommodated as single air shipments a decade ago. These big freighters have carried as single shipments such things as two printing presses weighing thousands pounds, a complete chemical production line, all of the sections of a seventy-ton oil-well tower, and heavy construction equipment.
Aviation job is seemingly a never ending shifts of work schedule. Business booms everywhere which have been so noticeable as the aviation industry also soars to a greater height. Job in aviation becomes more busy as for instance, at the other end of the size scale, air freight moves millions of small packages. Often these packages are brought to airport ticket counters for movement on the next flight out. Moving that way nearly every day are such things as new films, television videotapes, blueprints, computer tapes, and disks, cancelled checks and legal documents. Of course, much of air transportation is used to move business and commercial passengers. Millions of passengers a year travel by air. Indeed, as it goes busier, the role of individuals who take charge of the aviation maintenance jobs is very critical to the success of the business transport industry today, and its future.
