Job Description
The Fixed Wing Aircraft Design Engineer will lead and support the aerodynamic, structural, and configuration design of high-speed fixed-wing drones. The role focuses on achieving optimal performance across speed, range, stability, payload capacity, and manufacturability while ensuring compliance with regulatory and operational requirements.
Location: Khordha, Odisha
Key Responsibilities
- Optimize wing, fuselage, and control surface geometries.
- Develop various load cases for UAV flight regimes.
- Conduct CFD simulations across subsonic, transonic, and supersonic flight regimes.
- Plan and execute wind tunnel tests and flight trials, and correlate results with CFD predictions.
- Optimize aerodynamic efficiency for endurance, payload capacity, and stability.
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams including structures, propulsion, and avionics.
- Work closely with flight test teams to validate aerodynamic and performance predictions.
- Prepare technical documentation for design reviews and certification activities.
- Contribute to R&D initiatives focused on next-generation UAV technologies.
Required Skills & Competencies
- Strong fundamentals in aerodynamics, aircraft performance, flight mechanics, and stability.
- Ability to perform theoretical estimation and design of fixed-wing aircraft configurations for high-speed military/target drones and ISR UAV platforms.
- Experience in defining wing planform, airfoil selection, aspect ratio, sweep angle, and control surfaces for lightweight composite airframes, including propeller-powered and jet-powered military/UAV platforms.
- Expertise in optimizing aerodynamic performance for cruise, high-speed, climb, and endurance missions.
- Strong knowledge of longitudinal and lateral-directional stability analysis.
- Expertise in CFD tools such as ANSYS Fluent, STAR-CCM+, and OpenFOAM.
- Proficiency in CAD software including CATIA, NX, and SolidWorks.
- Experience with meshing and post-processing tools such as ANSA, Pointwise, Tecplot, and ParaView.
- Familiarity with scripting and analysis tools such as Python and MATLAB (preferred).
- Exposure to regulatory standards including DGAQA, MIL, and UAV certification standards.
Experience
- Minimum 10+ years of experience in aerodynamics and CFD analysis within the aircraft or drone industry.
- Proven experience working on high-speed target drones and ISR platforms is preferred.
Educational Qualification
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering.
