Salary of an Airplane Engineer
Airplane engineers – also known as aviation engineers or flight engineers – are part of the aerospace engineering industry that focus on the design, development and testing of aircraft. Engineers often specialize in one type of vehicle, such as helicopters or passenger planes, or one form of equipment, such as communications systems or landing gear. Airplane engineers research materials and techniques to improve the performance of aircraft, working closely with other specialists – for instance, metallurgists and physicists – to improve existing aircraft or design new ones. The salary for the role varies according to factors such as location and employer type.
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Average Salary
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In its national employment survey of May 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gathered pay information from over 70,000 engineers working within the aerospace industry – predominantly aircraft engineers, but also including those that work on spacecraft and missiles. It put the average yearly salary for the profession at $96,270, equivalent to $8,023 per month or $46.29 an hour. Salary comparison website PayScale.com put the average salary for an aviation engineer, as of April 2011, at between $52,309 and $118,564, dependent upon bonuses and profit sharing.
Salary by Industry
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The Bureau found that engineers working within federal government agencies and scientific research and development agencies were likely to receive among the best pay rates, with averages in these sectors of $108,820 and $108,760, respectively. Positions within communications equipment manufacturing paid an average of $105,350, while those in navigational, measuring, electro-medical and control instruments manufacturing paid average wages of $97,920. Engineers employed by aerospace products and parts manufacturers earned $87,730.
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Salary by Experience
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PayScale.com also analyzed how experience affects the salary of an airplane engineer. It listed the average wage for an individual with less than 12 months in the trade as between $51,041 and $65,079, while that for an engineer with one to four years experience was between $56,419 and $71,667. Five to nine years in the field brought wages of between $68,346 and $87,653, while 10 to 19 years resulted in pay levels between $80,576 and $107,198. A veteran of 20 years or more was likely to earn between $98,778 and $131,126.
Salary by Location
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The bureau listed Maryland as the state in which, across all industry sectors, an aerospace engineer was likely to receive the highest wages -- $115,310 – with the Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario area of California as the metropolitan district with the best pay rates -- $127,470. The state of Connecticut was listed at $85,530 while the district of Wichita, Kansas had an average of $88,040. Pay analysis website SalaryExpert.com, in its survey of flight engineer salaries in some major American cities, found that, of those surveyed, Boston and Dallas had the highest wage levels, $100,514 and $98,180, respectively. In contrast, Orlando, Florida was listed at $63,328.
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References
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