In the second of our series on popular courses, Jessica Shepherd climbs aboard a simulator to discover why aerospace engineering is on the up
The bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 marked an end to growth in much of the technology and new internet sector.
But for the aerospace industry it signalled take-off.
Many of the technically minded turned to computer-assisted flight control, space travel and technological advances in avionics. The creation of the Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger jet, and the Beagle 2 spacecraft, which hoped to find life on Mars, has given the study of aerospace an even higher profile.
Applications to university aerospace and aeronautical engineering courses reflect this growth in interest.
This year, applications to study aerospace engineering at Sheffield University soared by 18 per cent with 560 applicants for 80 places.
To find out more, I visited the faculty and those who teach the three-year BEng and four-year MEng.
Tony Judd, one of the lecturers, told me that the aerospace industry was not just "booming" but entering an exciting phase.
He said his graduates faced the challenge of producing unpiloted planes that were also environmentally friendly. To do this they will be needed in ever-growing numbers.
He said: "Aerospace is becoming more and more important. Finding environmental alternatives and solving the huge technical problems involved with unpiloted aircraft are driving a growth in jobs and in university applications."
Admissions tutor Mike Brown said that despite fewer teenagers studying science and maths, the number of aerospace applications would continue to rise for the next five years at least.
As if proof were needed to show just how exciting aerospace is, I was given a go on the faculty's £130,000 flight simulator. I climbed into the cockpit, enclosed in a darkened room, and stepped on the accelerator. I crash-landed shortly afterwards.
A performance such as mine might have put an abrupt end to an MEng in aerospace engineering with private pilot instruction, I was told.
Postas Soutis, head of aerospace engineering, described the ideal aerospace student as someone with an imaginative way of solving problems, the ability to communicate ideas, and a maths and physics background.
He said: "Aerospace engineers design. It is not about repairing things.
Look at my hands - are they greasy? It's not toys for boys, it's about innovation."