Aviation major

Aviation: courses, careers, and where to study

Aviation trains students to fly and navigate fixed-wing aircraft, building the cockpit skills and federal certifications needed to work as professional pilots and flight crew.

An Aviation major teaches the practical and technical work of operating commercial, cargo, corporate, agricultural, public-service, and rescue fixed-wing aircraft. Students study how aircraft are designed and how they perform, how flight systems and controls behave in the air, and how flight crews run standard and emergency procedures. Coursework covers navigation systems and procedures, radio communications with air traffic control, weather and airspace safety, and the federal rules that govern piloting. Much of the program happens in the cockpit and in simulators rather than only in lecture halls, so learning is built around supervised flight hours that move from basic handling toward complex, instrument-based, and multi-engine operations. This is distinct from aviation management, which centers on running airports and airline operations from the ground, and from aerospace engineering, which centers on designing and analyzing the aircraft themselves.

Aviation is offered as both an academic degree and a structured flight-training pathway, and the credential that actually lets a graduate fly for hire comes from federal pilot certification rather than the diploma alone. Becoming a professional pilot generally requires earning federal certificates and ratings in sequence, accumulating logged flight time, passing written knowledge tests and practical check rides, and holding a medical certificate; programmatic accreditation and these certification requirements should be verified with the relevant federal authority and the program before enrolling. Many students earn instructor credentials to log additional hours while teaching. Graduates fly for passenger and cargo carriers, charter and corporate flight departments, flight schools, agricultural operators, and public-service and emergency aviation, with crew roles that progress from first officer toward captain as experience grows.

In federal data for the closely related occupation of commercial pilots, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2024 median wage of $122,670 and projects employment to grow about 5.1% from 2024 to 2034; a postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education for that occupation. National figures are occupation-wide medians across all experience levels, not starting wages or graduate outcomes.