Undergraduate programs

A unique blend of aerospace and ocean engineering systems

The Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering offers a bachelor of science degree in aerospace and ocean engineering. Students can major in aerospace or ocean engineering, or they can double major in both.

In offering both majors, the department offers students opportunities to blend, borrow, and build upon what these disciplines have in common: the design and analysis of vehicles, structures, and systems that operate in a fluid.

Aircraft, ships, and spacecraft

While Earth's atmosphere, its oceans, and the highly rarefied flow fields of space present aircraft, ships, and spacecraft with fluids of very different densities, many of the same basic laws of physics apply to them all.

• Where do our alumni end up?

Junior Spring Semester Abroad ›

Virginia Tech partners with Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) to offer a junior spring semester abroad. This exchange program allows Virginia Tech students an insight into the expertise of German aeronautical engineering.

Capstone design experience ›

The undergraduate course of study culminates in a year-long capstone design experience in the senior year. Design project assignments are developed by industry and government experts as part of international design competitions in which teams of AOE students have won numerous awards for their aircraft, spacecraft, and ship designs.

Rankings

U.S. News and World Report ranked VT AOE #13 nationally among undergraduate aerospace engineering programs in the 2025 rankings.