Aeronautical engineering traces its roots back to balloon flight, gliders, and airships. But the real expansion of activity came with the first mechanically powered and controlled flight of the Wright brothers' Flyer in December 1903 at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina.

During the 1960s the concept of aeronautical engineering was broadened to include all vehicles that operate above the surface of the Earth, in outer space as well as in the atmosphere. The term aerospace engineering thus came to denote this broadened discipline. In addition to space vehicles, all types of hovercraft are included in this field of engineering.

The principal technologies encompassed by aerospace engineering are those of aerodynamics, propulsion, structures and stability, and control. The aerospace-engineering process begins in academic, industrial, and government research centers. Industrial designers, using the latest technological developments, propose an initial vehicle design calculated to satisfy the particular requirements specified. This initial design is followed by a long process, lasting months and sometimes years, in which the design and development of the many vehicle components are carried out by aerospace engineers. The design process precedes the construction and testing of one or more prototype vehicles. Satisfactory completion of flight testing of prototypes is followed by quantity production and operation. Aerospace engineers participate in all steps of these processes.

Encyclopedia Brittanica