AirSpaceMag.com

What’s the top aerospace engineering school in the country? Depends on how you measure it, of course, but if you’re ranking on the basis of who spends the most on research and development (as the National Science Foundation does each year), then first place goes to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which spent $56 million on aeronautical and astronautical engineering in fiscal year 2007. Number two was Georgia Tech at $40.5 million, followed by Wichita State University, whose National Institute for Aviation Research accounted for most of the school’s $32.4 million in aerospace R&D expenditures.

Federally funded aerospace R&D totaled $293.7 million across all colleges and universities in 2007, slightly higher than the year before, but down from the 2005 high of $335 million. Nonfederal funding totaled $130 million, a significant jump from the previous year’s level of $97.5 million.

The top aerospace schools by amount of R&D expenditures:

1. Johns Hopkins Univ., $56 million
2. Georgia Tech, $40.6 million
3. Wichita State Univ., $32.4 million
4. MIT, $18.7 million
5. Texas A&M Univ., $16.6 million
6. Univ. of Colorado, $16.2 million
7. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, $15.4 million
8. Univ. of Texas, Austin, $11.2 million
9. Purdue Univ., $11 million
10. Mississippi State Univ., $10.3 million