We design everything that is mechanical such as wheels and axles, airplane bodies, pumps, computer hard drives, bicycles and heart-lung machines. Mechanical engineers are concerned with the production, transmission and use of power. We design and develop systems which produce power such as steam and gas turbines, car engines, nuclear reactors, jet engines and rocket motors. We design and develop the devices that consume power in order to accomplish a useful result, such as refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, elevators and loud-speakers. In addition all of these products must not only be designed, they must also be built.
Mechanical engineering is an extremely broad field.
Projects being undertaken by mechanical engineers range from medical issues such as the freezing of living tissue and development of an artificial liver, to understanding the currents and waves in the oceans. Areas of Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering has many fields within it. Using the SR-71 Blackbird as a reference we can quickly identify many problems that need to be studied in order to create an airplane and the fields of mechanical engineering that relate to those problems. The first question is obviously whether it will fly. The field of fluid mechanics includes the study of air flow.