ABSTRACT This review examines the evolution of undergraduate aerospace engineering (AE) laboratories from 1990 to 2025, focusing on course formats, pedagogy, technology, and assessment. Once centered on traditional demonstration‐based exercises, AE laboratories have increasingly shifted toward hands‐on, project‐based, and hybrid physical‐virtual models that better connect theory with practice. The COVID‐19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote and online laboratories, which expanded access but also raised questions of authenticity and engagement. Alongside these pedagogical changes, technological advances have reshaped laboratory instruction: wind tunnels, strain gauges, and flight simulators remain central, but computational fluid dynamics (CFD), additive manufacturing (AM), and modern techniques such as particle image velocimetry (PIV), pressure sensitive paint (PSP), and digital image correlation (DIC) are playing growing roles. Emerging approaches include digital twin frameworks that couple real‐time data with simulation, virtual and augmented reality platforms that enhance immersion, and applications of artificial intelligence for automated analysis and adaptive control tasks. Sustainability has also become a driver of laboratory design, with new experiments emphasizing electrical propulsion and aeroacoustics. Despite these advances, assessment practices remain dominated by lab reports with limited innovation. The review concludes that systematic evaluation and strategic integration of advanced technologies are essential to sustain the relevance and impact of AE laboratory education.
Mingtai Chen (Sun,) studied this question.