The role of tradition in aerospace engineering courses

The origins of the aerospace industry go back many centuries. Everyone is familiar with the story of Icarus who having designed a pair of wings, attempted to fly. He was successful but flew too close to the sun, whereupon the adhesive used as wing fastening melted due to thermal radiation and his flight ended in disaster. At the time this would have been regarded as science fiction, but clearly some consideration had been given to aerodynamics ( for wing design), adhesives and thermal radiation.