This course meets weekly, to discuss a combination of aerospace history and current events, in order to understand how they are responsible for the state of the aerospace industry. With invited subject matter experts participating in nearly every session, students have an opportunity to hone their insight through truly informed discussion. The aim of the course is to prepare junior and senior level students for their first industry experiences. Deliverables include a journal and class participation.

Subject addresses the architecting of air transportation systems. Focuses on the conceptual phase of product definition include technical, economic, market, environmental, regulatory, legal, manufacturing, and societal factors. Subject centers on a realistic system case study and includes a number of lectures from industry and government. Past examples included the Very Large Transport Aircraft, a Supersonic Business Jet and a Next Generation Cargo System. Subject identifies the critical system level issues and analyzes them in depth via student team projects and individual assignments. The overall goal of the semester is to produce a business plan and a system specifications document that can be used to assess candidate systems.

This course covers the fundamental principles, practices and tools of Lean Six Sigma methods that underlay modern organizational productivity approaches applied in aerospace, automotive, health care, and other sectors. It includes lectures, active learning exercises, a plant tour, talks by industry practitioners, and videos. One third of the course is devoted to a physical simulation of an aircraft manufacturing enterprise or a clinic to illustrate the power of Lean Six Sigma methods.

The course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.