Expert: Ray Wilkinson - 7/20/2007

Question
QUESTION: sir
        my aim is to become an airlines official.so i want to know whether AME is better or Aeronautical engineering so i would be economically satisfied.
sincerely,          
deepak          kerala
         India

ANSWER: Hi Deepak

Can you please let me have some more-detailed information. It would depend on what specifically you mean by 'airline official'. Also, can you tell me what AME means - it's not an acronym I'm familiar with, so perhaps it's specific to India. Then i can give you my best shot at a helpful answer.

Regards

Ray

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: sir,
     my doubts are as follows;
*what are the responsabities of aircraft maintenance engineer(AME)?
*which one has wider job oppurtunities AME or aeronautical engineer?
*what are the responsabilities of aeronautical engineer?
*which among the above jobs get higher salary?

         sir , the above are my questions. i will be waiting 4 u r reply.

Answer
Hi again Deepak

A maintenance engineer is responsible for carrying out any maintenance operations on an aircraft (obviously!), as it comes in for its regular checks, and in many cases will supervisor other maintenance personnel. He will also carry out repairs. He/she is often responsible for signing the aircraft's log to say the maintenenace has been done, and done correctly. If he's wrong, or it isn't done properly, people may die. He will be subject to regular examinations throughout his career, and if he fails may be out of a job as he will lose his licenses. However, he is essentially a shop-floor worker.

A graduate engineer may work in a wide variety of fields, and it's difficult to answer your other questions in that case. He may work in design, on either whole aircraft or components or systems, he may work in test or in manufacture. A couple fo examples - I spent 11 years in industry, and my job was to show that the missile systems and aircraft systems my company produced would work correctly when needed. The team I worked in would set up flight trials tyo measure the environment in terms of vibration, temperature, noise, air pressure, etc. and then analyse the results to derive the specification. I would write the test plans and all the instructions, and the test lab would carry out the tests. I would then report. However, I also controlled our subcontractor test requirements, managed the money (up to two million US dollars, almost 20 years ago) and kept the programme on schedule. I now teach undergrads to do the same sort of thing.

One of our recent graduates works for Airbus and travels around the world selling aircraft. This highlights the range.

Regarding responsbility, it may vary from very little, to managing large budgets or keeping a programme on time, to signing the clearance for flight for a fleet of aircraft - in this case there are effectively many thousands of lives depending on it.

As far as salary is concerned, I think the two types are probably similar, although it does depend a lot on exactly what you are doing and who for.

I hope this goes some way to answering your question.