The severe defense cutbacks and the layoffs of thousands of engineers gave many aerospace engineering students enough reason to pursue some other different but related engineering field in graduate school. Furthermore, unlike undergraduate students, graduate students often get paid to study. Graduate students' pay will not come close to what they could be earning in industry, but the grants are sizable. Students can usually piece together enough grant and fellowship money to not have to worry much about finances. Public foundations, industry, and the specific engineering departments generally provide funding.
Grants come in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships.
Engineering students get far more corporate sponsorship than graduate students in most other departments. It is common for student to end up doing graduate research that is directly or indirectly backed by corporate sponsors. The last and probably the most important reason for attending graduate is to satisfy your own intellectual curiosity. Graduate school will give you an opportunity to study specific areas in a manner and depth not possible outside the realm of academia. It will give you a chance to make an academic contribution to your field and to further develop your own personal interest in the field.