Rotorcraft and System Engineer: A New Perspective for Education and Profession

One of the problems facing the Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Defence Industry is the lack, in terms of quantity and quality, of qualified Rotorcraft and System engineers. As Stephen Welby (see footnote 1) has pointed out, in an AHSI meeting (see footnote 2), in the next years there will be a shortage of qualified engineers. One aims to present a System Engineering process to evaluate what should be looked for, in terms of education, to guaranty future qualified, mainly qualitatively but also quantitatively, rotorcraft and system engineer professionals for the industry necessities. Starting from the definition of System, based in System Philosophy, and using System Thinking, one presents the Human System, the Engineer System, and relates it to the professional engineer characteristics looked for by the industry, and the characteristics engineering education curriculum is based on. One concludes that a new paradigm for education must be considered in the engineering academic curriculum.