The unique pedagogy of this course is explained and assessed in the following paper:
Murman, Earll M., John-Paul Clarke, and R. John Hansman. "Aircraft and Air Transportation Systems Engineering Curriculum at MIT." 24th International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), 2004. (PDF)
Paper Abstract
In the past five years, the curriculum in aircraft and air transportation systems at MIT has been expanded in response to strategic planning imperatives in Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In this paper, graduate programs and subjects that have been developed are presented within the context of a general framework characterizing the intellectual dimensions of these systems area. Technical, lifecycle and social aspects are addressed, and in particular the interrelationships between them. Both content and pedagogy challenges are considered. Lessons learned from offering these subjects are reported.