TwistedLove Wrote:So I recently filled out a thing sent to me in the mail, recruiting people for the United States Air Force. I got an email the other day from a recruiter saying that from the information I gave I may qualify to be accepted. The email gave me an address for the recruiter in my area. My issue is that I haven’t decided if it’s right for me… I want help people but I don’t think I can fly anything. Mainly I would want to do something like join the Air Force Reserve and go to college for engineering or something and build or work on the aircrafts for them. I’m not sure if that’s a possibility or if there are other hoops I would have to jump through. I’m not sure if anyone can give me advice on this particular subject, but if you know anything about the Air Force please let me know.
Well, from what I understand, the Air force is the most personnel friendly part of the U.S. military. As far as building and maintaining airplanes, that is not something they would likely have an engineer doing. First, military aircraft are not built by the military. They are built by private companies like Boeing and the French Airbus. Also, the people who work on the air crafts are mechanics, not engineers. Engineers, mechanical engineers, deign engines and various other equipment, but they rarely actually assemble the equipment themselves. And as I said before, the military gets its airplanes from private companies. Indeed, even NASA's brand new low orbiter was made by Boeing.
What I can tell you is that engineers have long been an important part of any military, from building war machines like trebuchets and battering rams in ancient times to designing infrastructural support like bridges, dams and finding means to supply fresh water, irrigation, and electricity to communities. The Army Corps of Engineers is largely responsible for those types of projects, however, and the Army Academy, West Point (founded by Thomas Jefferson), is still considered one of the best schools for that type (structural, I suppose) of engineering. But like all military academies, it is hard to get into, and one only does it if they plan a life in the military.