Wind tunnel engineer vs stress engineer

The differences between wind tunnel engineers and stress engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a wind tunnel engineer and a stress engineer. Additionally, a stress engineer has an average salary of $107,036, which is higher than the $92,133 average annual salary of a wind tunnel engineer.

The top three skills for a wind tunnel engineer include data analysis, labview and engineering support. The most important skills for a stress engineer are finite element analysis, structural analysis, and autocad.

Wind tunnel engineer vs stress engineer overview

	Wind Tunnel Engineer	Stress Engineer
Yearly salary	$92,133	$107,036
Hourly rate	$44.29	$51.46
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	2,824	36,117
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	4	4

Wind tunnel engineer vs stress engineer salary

Wind tunnel engineers and stress engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Wind Tunnel Engineer	Stress Engineer
Average salary	$92,133	$107,036
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $126,000	Between $73,000 And $156,000
Highest paying City	Walnut Creek, CA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	Washington
Best paying company	Tesla	CTS
Best paying industry	-	Professional

Differences between wind tunnel engineer and stress engineer education

There are a few differences between a wind tunnel engineer and a stress engineer in terms of educational background:

	Wind Tunnel Engineer	Stress Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common major	Aerospace Engineering	Mechanical Engineering
Most common college	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Georgia Institute of Technology

Wind tunnel engineer vs stress engineer demographics

Here are the differences between wind tunnel engineers' and stress engineers' demographics:

	Wind Tunnel Engineer	Stress Engineer
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 95.2% Female, 4.8%	Male, 89.7% Female, 10.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.6% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 12.1% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 19.8% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between wind tunnel engineer and stress engineer duties and responsibilities

Wind tunnel engineer example responsibilities.

Manage the fuel supply and aircraft electrical distribution system on board ship, including radar tank gauging and filtration systems.
Investigate ICD requirement on payload fairing venting to ensure the structure integrity of the spacecraft and payload fairing.
Position also include engineering liaison to resolve technical and mechanical installation issues and vendor and FAA DER coordination for documentation issues.
Remove insulation, fiberglass, calcium and asbestos.
Apply Insulation/metal to hot/cold pipes on the ground or midair.

Stress engineer example responsibilities.

Lead CFD analyses on various aircraft types.
Manage the development and design data in PDM to ensure successful completion.
Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Develop Perl, TCL, and Bourne shell tools to improve the CFD process.
Perform FEA static analysis on primary and secondary MLG structural parts using ABAQUS as solver.
Perform mission analysis using PATRAN, ABAQUS, and NASTRAN as well as basic hand calculations.

Wind tunnel engineer vs stress engineer skills

Common wind tunnel engineer skills

Data Analysis, 42%
LabVIEW, 29%
Engineering Support, 9%
Acquisition Systems, 8%
CFD, 6%
Tunnel Design, 5%

Common stress engineer skills

Finite Element Analysis, 10%
Structural Analysis, 9%
Autocad, 6%
Fatigue Analysis, 5%
MRB, 5%
Ansys, 4%