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Originally Posted by sparksandtabs
If anybody could provide some insight on that of a double major of aero/mech and any difference would be helpful.
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I have a BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering and a MS in mechanical. You're right that there's a good bit of overlap between the two. Often it's only a matter of what type of problems that are emphasized that are different. For instance, both study fluid dynamics. Aeros typically look at external flows around bodies in air while mechanicals work with various gases and liquids and more often analyze internal flows. Both usually have a pretty good emphasis on structural analysis. Traditionally, for aeros this meant aluminum sheet metal structures while mechanicals are into machine elements. Both disciplines study thermodynamics as both can be involved in engine design but mechanicals usually get a big exposure to the steam tables.
As for crossover, my master's thesis was on helicopter rotor aerodynamics which was going on in the mechanical department rather than the aero department.
The bottom line, is if you have a good understanding of the basics of either discipline, you can move between the two. As to which to emphasize, that depends one where you think you want to fit in.
As to programming embedded systems, there's a new term floating around in some schools, mechatronics. This is the fusion of mechanical and electronic systems as control is becoming a major part of mechanical systems. Control is becoming distributed with more intelligence going into individual parts that are integrated into the system rather than having monolithic control systems. By the same token, aircraft, missile, and spacecraft control systems are becoming more sophisticated and relying heavily on computer based controls. For instance, the B-2 couldn't fly without a computer between the pilot and the control surfaces.