4 Surprisingly Useful Apps I Use as an Aerospace Engineer
Ever wondered what kind of apps an aerospace engineer actually uses?
No, it’s not just Slack, emails, and coffee timer widgets.
In this article, I’ll show you the 4 apps I keep on my phone — tools that genuinely help me as someone who works with flight, data, and physics on a daily basis. Some of them might surprise you, and one might just be your new favorite engineering sidekick.
1. Windy – A Weather App for Engineers and Pilots
At first glance, Windy might seem like a beautifully designed weather app — but under the hood, it's a full-fledged aeronautical forecasting platform.
It lets you switch between atmospheric models (like ECMWF and GFS), overlay wind vectors at any altitude, visualize thermals, jet streams, and even CAPE indices (Convective Available Potential Energy, useful for predicting turbulence).
Why I use it:
When planning a skydive from 13,000 ft, I use Windy to visualize wind layers between 3,000 and 15,000 ft. This helps me anticipate drift and plan canopy pattern entry.
Before testing a tethered drone prototype, I check low-altitude wind gradients. Even a 5-knot shear between 50 m and 100 m can destabilize a hovering test.
In CFD work, I’ve used Windy to approximate boundary conditions when local weather stations weren’t available. Not perfect — but better than guessing.
Example:
I once used Windy’s ECMWF wind profile to explain a long canopy drift over an unexpected forest patch. The culprit? A 10-knot tailwind layer sitting around 6,000 ft that didn’t show up on surface-level forecasts.
2. Flightradar24 – Real-Time Data from the Sky
Flightradar24 does more than track planes for aviation geeks.
It provides live telemetry for nearly every commercial aircraft in the sky — including speed, altitude, rate of climb/descent, squawk code, aircraft type, and more.
Why I use it:
While observing wake vortex behavior near a small airfield, I used Flightradar24 to match aircraft type and approach speed to explain turbulence patterns we observed from the ground.
In one design review, I pulled up real flight data from an A320 to back a decision on flap configuration by showing real-world angle of descent.
When testing UAV passive detection, we needed to confirm nearby manned aircraft activity — and this app became our airspace monitor.
Example:
During a flight delay, I once looked up our aircraft on Flightradar and noticed it was holding 15 minutes at FL330. The pilot later mentioned "congestion" — I already knew exactly where and why.
3. Photomath – Scan. Solve. Sanity Check.
Photomath lets you scan equations using your phone’s camera, then solves them and shows the full steps.
Sounds like cheating — but it’s a serious debug tool when you're scribbling equations during prototyping or teaching.
Why I use it:
I’ve used it to double-check ODEs I wrote on a whiteboard during system modeling for a control surface.
When reviewing a student's derivation of an energy equation, I scanned it into Photomath to verify integration steps while on the train.
Sometimes, it’s just faster to scan and check an algebraic simplification than re-type everything into Python or a CAS.
Example:
While revising a quick linear stability analysis in a coffee shop, I scanned my final equation with Photomath. It caught a missing negative sign I hadn’t noticed in 20 minutes.
4. Physics Toolbox – Pocket Lab for Real-World Signals
This app is hands down one of the most underrated tools for engineers.
Physics Toolbox turns your phone into a sensor-rich diagnostics device: accelerometer, magnetometer, barometer, microphone, GPS, light sensor — all accessible and recordable.
Why I use it:
During parachute deployment tests, I’ve placed the phone on my chest mount to measure acceleration spikes. You’d be surprised how consistent G-force peaks are between openings.
I once used the barometric sensor to measure pressure drop in a slow elevator — later re-used that logic to verify cabin pressure inside a pressurized UAV pod.
The sound frequency analyzer was useful during a DIY wind tunnel calibration to identify blade imbalance based on harmonics.
Example:
In a rooftop test of a passive glider, I used the accelerometer to confirm the impulse force from launch, and the gyroscope to verify yaw oscillations. The data wasn’t perfect, but it helped me calibrate a better release system.
Final Thoughts
Each of these apps helps me bridge the gap between what I design and what I experience, whether I’m jumping out of a plane or tuning parameters in a simulation.
They’re not just digital tools — they’re extensions of how I observe and interact with flight in the real world.
🔗 Want more like this?
Check out my latest YouTube video here
