Professional Aerospace Interview Questions & Answers:

1. What are the disadvantages of being in aerospace industry?

The biggest disadvantage is that it is a relatively small field, and the number of companies in the field is getting smaller (lots of mergers between big companies in the news lately). In addition, this used to be a field where America had 90% of the market, but now foreign companies are catching up; this means that American companies are streamlining their organizations in order to be competitive.

2. What interests and abilities would help some one as an Aerospace engineer?

Successful aerospace engineers need lots of curiosity, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, written and oral communication skills, people skills (as in leading and participating in teams) and computer skills. There are no physical requirements; in fact, we have many engineers with disabilities and it is not an issue for their job performance

3. How important are Aeronautical Engineers to todays society?

Aeronautical Engineers the aircraft people use for business and holidaying would not be in the sky, it cannot be contested that society depends heavily on travel via aircraft.

Aeronautical Engineer will provide the solution to increase overall aircraft efficiency, thereby helping to drive down the levels of emissions current aircraft produce.

Aeronautical Engineers also help put the satellites in to space, the satellites we rely on for weather information, geospatial-mapping data, environmental monitoring, telecommunications, and research. Therefore, in answer to the question I feel aerospace engineering plays a major role in society, producing and developing a lot of the technology we rely on heavily.

4. How many types of emergency landings are there and explain?

There are three types of emergency landings like:

* Forced landing: This is a situation where Air Craft engine fails and Pilot is forced to land the plane in the nearest airport.

* Precautionary landing: This is used when Pilot faces a problem due to severe weather conditions, or being lost in the air space traffic or due to lack of fuel or expecting an engine trouble.

* Ditching: This is when where Pilot cannot avoid this situation but to just land on water, which is safer than air bound.

5. How important is to get the passengers switch off the mobile phones and laptops during land off. What could be the consequences?

It is very important to check if laptop and mobile phones are switched off or not, as the consequences can be, bad….because interference of aircraft communication devices and electronic devices interfere with each other and there could be chances of not proper landing. Therefore, it is highly recommended electronic and communication devices should be switched off during take off and landing.

6. How would you handle the extreme pressure during emergency if you know that plane is not safe and it might crash anytime?

Few professions demand you to be selfless, and our respective clients would be the most important thing, that is why customer service differs completely in such fields compared to other streams. For example, Doctors, Lawyers, Pilots…these are the professions where employee saving your customer is the up most important thing. Therefore, as a Pilot we should understand our duties and responsibilities and will ensure that whatever panic situation we could be in, we will continue to deliver our duties until the end and ensure passengers are safe all times. Simultaneously I will own the full responsibility of landing the Air Craft safe and in the steady position.

7. Can you miss the clearance limit and loose the commands from the Air Craft Officer?

Yes, there is a policy and procedure to be followed for the missing clearance limit problem, so a Pilot can leave and reach a different altitude for sometime within the limit and should come back to the proper clearance limit once things are in control. This time limit is only as per the procedure in the manual.

8. You are about to take off the plane in few seconds and a catastrophic engine fails, and your captain tells you not to take off and just stay in the center line. What would you do?

Once the take off procedure has started, it is no longer safe to stop the plane from take off. Instead, it is better to continue with the take off and its best handled in the air. All certified aircraft under 25 can run without an engine and there is no problem related to it for take off or to for plane landing. It is actually far better idea to handle the problem in the air than to face the situation on the runway, when plane engine is in high speed.

9. Without Air Traffic Control, what is the minimum descent rate you can descend the plane?

A Pilot can descend up to 500” bare minimum, without informing the ATC (Air Traffic Controller) and this is only during an exceptional cases. However, it is always better to be in regular touch with the Air Traffic Controller and to keep him informed about the descent rate. This will not have any traffic problems during landing in the runway.

10. When a pilot is assigned a speed, how much can one deviate from that speed?

Complying and following the actual speed adjustment policies, a pilot can run and indicate plus or minus 10 knots or 0.02 Mach number of specified speed. It is always better to keep the land air officer in the loop before adjusting the air speed. Exceptions are always there to meet the emergency requirement.