POSITION: Aerospace Design Engineer
CODE: VTOL-0820
GRADE: TBC
CONTRACT: Permanent
JOB DESCRIPTION: The Aerospace Design Engineer will be in charge of the mechanical design and outsourced manufacture of VTOL Flying Wing hybrid drone.
THE COMPANY
VTOL Technologies is at the forefront of commercial Beyond Visual Line Of Sight or long-distance asset & infrastructure management, inspection and maintenance operations deploying automated Unmanned Aerial System solutions. We provide consultancy and simulation / evaluation of target-market Concepts of Operation as well as long-distance, aerial drone services. Our target markets include asset & infrastructure management companies, first responder incident-response organisations, medical supplies delivery and energy distribution in both urban and rural environments. With our 20 years of experience and expertise in VTOL fixed-wing, thrust-vectoring drones, we are developing a breakthrough system that will take automated Unmanned Aerial Vehicles beyond their current narrow scope of operations into new domains globally. This is an excellent opportunity for the right candidate to join a dynamic and growing company in an exciting, challenging and rapidly expanding industry sector.
RESPONSABILITIES
- Design for assembly, design for manufacturing, composites
- Design and optimisation of scalable hybrid drone airframes, focusing on mechanical, complex mechanism, composite and rapid prototyping elements of the design.
- Working with external suppliers to optimise / minimise component weight whilst maximising component strength.
- Define, design and optimise ducted fans for the hybrid drone thrust-vectoring propulsion system.
- Determine the aerodynamic loads on the airframe and propulsion units and design an appropriate aircraft load-bearing structure.
- Prepare, submit and analyse CFD studies to support the drone design and optimise both airframe and ducted fans, evaluate performance and extract aerodynamic coefficients and control derivatives.
- Optimise the aircraft mechanical design, mass distribution, centre of gravity position and structural analysis.
- Improve the propulsion models and tools used to calculate the performance of the drone propulsion units (open and/or shrouded rotors).
- Interact with advanced technology partners on drone development.
- Establish appropriate Internal aircraft avionics and hydrogen fuel cell systems
- Interface with an expert aerodynamics team.
Applicants must be eligible for employment within the United Kingdom. Individual applications, including a covering letter and CV should be sent to jennifer.bryant@vtol-technologies.com.
Skills and Experiences
SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Essential
- Aeronautical or Mechanical Engineering degree or equivalent professional work experience.
- A minimum 5 years aerospace or automotive design experience.
- An appreciation of the particular weight demands and sensitivities when designing VTOL aerial unmanned systems.
- Extensive knowledge of mechanical, composites design and the use of rapid prototyping techniques.
- Extensive SolidWorks Premium and SolidWorks Simulation Premium and Solidworks PDM design experience.
- Capable of solving complex problems with little to no supervision on schedule as an individual or as a member of an integrated team.
- Passion for advancing the commercial autonomous systems industry.
- Flexibility to work with sub-contractors; shaping and guiding their input into projects.
- Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding start-up atmosphere.
- Strong analytical skills.
- Flexible approach and willingness to work on a variety of projects.
- Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
Desirable
- Experience with CFD tools such as SimScale.
- Experience in rotor and ducted fan design.
- Knowledge of MIT open source aerofoil design tools.
- Knowledge of J2 Aircraft Dynamics, JSBSim or similar aircraft dynamics software.
- Knowledge of VBA programming.
- Prior experience building and flying remotely controlled aircraft.
