Aerospace Abbreviations

Aerospace refers to the human effort in science , engineering and business to fly in the atmosphere of the Earth ( aeronautics ) and the surrounding space ( astronautics ). Aerospace business is very diverse, with a multitude of military, industrial and commercial applications. Aerospace organizations operate, perform, research, design, manufacture aircraft and / or spacecraft.

Aerospace zone is not the same as airspace, which is physical airspace directly over a location on the ground. The start of space and the end of the air are considered 100 km above the ground based on the physical explanation that the air pressure is too low for a lifting body to generate significant lifting force without exceeding orbital velocity.

In most industrial countries, the aerospace industry is a cooperation between public and private industries. For example, several countries governments finance a civilian space program through tax collection, such as in the United States: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, in Europe: the European Space Agency ESA, in Canada: the Canadian Space Agency CSA , in India: the Indian Space Research Organization ISRO, in Japan: Japanese Air Force Exploration Agency JAXA , in Russia: Roscosmos RKA, in China: Chinese Space Agency CNSA, in Pakistan:Pakistani Agency for Research in Space and the Upper Atmosphere SUPARCO, in Iran: Iranian Space Agency ISA and the South Korean Aeronautical and Space Agency KARI.

Along with these public space programs, many companies manufacture technical tools and components such as spaceships and satellites . Some well-known companies involved in space programs are: Boeing , Cobham , Airbus , SpaceX , Lockheed Martin , United Technologies , MacDonald Dettwiler , and Northrop Grumman . These companies are also involved in other areas of aerospace, such as aircraft construction.

Modern aerospace began with engineer George Cayley in 1799. Cayley proposed an aircraft with “a fixed wing and a horizontal and vertical tail”, defining the characteristics of the modern aircraft.

The 19th century saw the creation of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain ( Royal Aeronautical Society ) (1866), the American Rocketry Society and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, which made aeronautics a more serious scientific discipline. Aviators such as Otto Lilienthal , who introduced the Curved Airfoil in 1891, used sails to analyze aerodynamic forces ( Aerodynamics ). The Wright brothers were interested in Lilienthal’s work and read many of his publications. They also found inspiration in Octave Chanute, an aviator and author of Progress in Flying Machines (1894). It was the preliminary work of Cayley, Lilienthal, Chanute, and other early aerospace engineers that brought the first propulsion-powered flight to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903, by the Wright brothers.

War and science fiction have inspired great minds like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Wernher von Braun to achieve flight beyond the atmosphere.

The launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 began the space age and Apollo 11 made the first manned moon landing on July 20, 1969. In April 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia launched the initiation of regular manned access to orbital space. A sustained human presence in orbital space began with Mir (space station) in 1986 and continued from the International Space Station . Space economy and space tourism are more recent features of the aerospace sector.

List of Acronyms Related to Aerospace