The Department of Aerospace Engineering was started at Karunya in the year 2009 with the primary objective of producing Aerospace Engineers to meet the growing demand for engineers to serve the civilian aeronautical as well as the defense oriented sectors. Simultaneously, it is also intended to employ part of this manpower in the expanding space R&D in the light of our growing demand for space applications in communication, remote sensing, strategic applications and others. It is well known that the field of aircraft design and manufacture in the country is wide open for our young technologists and entrepreneurs as we still do not have a viable civilian aircraft industry sector. Though we have been building large communication satellites and launching them into synchronous orbits, a large chunk of the business still goes out to foreign launch organizations.

Since Aerospace Engineering is a multi-disciplinary field, it is natural to expect a host of spin-offs during the developmental phase. This will happen in a big way when the country goes not only to subsystem level but also to even component level design and manufacture. At present there is a need for substantial development in the aerospace industry. However, it is to be realized that a gradual shift of the above activities from the developed West to the developing East is already taking place. As an important country in Asia, India stands to reap rich dividends in this challenging field.

It is to be noted that at present the computational engineering has advanced to a very high level in many areas including Aerospace Engineering. Laboratory testing and qualification is resorted to only in indispensable and critical cases. The advances in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and structural analysis together with the micro level approach to material science have reduced the wind tunnel and structural tests significantly. The notable case of the development of Boeing 787 bears testimony to this. Not only design, but even the entire shop floor practice and managing the inventory have been modified.

In Karunya University, the experimental facilities in Aerospace Engineering have been established not only with the objective of being teaching aids, but also eventually to become tools of research and consultancy. The specifications of the established facilities have been drawn out with their eventual application for research. This means they have to cater to testing and data generation for real life application in aircraft, rockets and spacecraft as opposed to idealized cases being dealt with in UG teaching curriculum.