As a Flight Sciences Engineer at Elroy Air, you will own performance analysis, flight dynamics, and configuration trades across our hybrid-electric lift+cruise VTOL program. You will be the analytical backbone of the vehicle team - reasoning across hover, transition, and cruise regimes, and working directly with propulsion, structures, and controls engineers to drive decisions from early concept through certification.
What you'll own:- Own vehicle performance modeling across hover, transition, and cruise: mission analysis, hybrid-electric energy management, climb optimization, and range/endurance trades
- Build and maintain 6-DOF flight dynamics models for a lift+cruise configuration: aero database construction through the transition corridor, rotor-wing interaction modeling, stability derivatives, and trim analysis in hover, transition, and cruise
- Contribute to vehicle design trades: feed flight sciences insight into OML shaping, drag reduction, control surface sizing, and flight controls architecture to close performance and handling qualities requirements
- Derive external flight loads across the operational envelope and collaborate with the structures team to define limit and ultimate load cases, support fatigue analysis, and feed aeroelastic models
- Support flight test planning, instrumentation requirements, and post-flight data reduction and analysis; correlate measured performance against analytical predictions
- Build and improve simulation environments used for envelope expansion, handling qualities assessment, and controls development
- Partner with propulsion and power teams to integrate hybrid-electric powertrain models into mission analysis; define power-required envelopes and binding constraints across the flight profile
- Contribute to certification planning by authoring compliance analyses, performance substantiation reports, and supporting V&V documentation
Our Ideal Candidate- B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering or a closely related field
- 5+ years of meaningful hands-on experience in flight sciences, vehicle performance, or flight dynamics
- Proficiency in vehicle performance modeling: energy-based methods, point-mass and full 6-DOF simulation, power-required/available analysis
- Experience building or working with aerodynamic databases and stability derivative sets for flight simulation or loads analysis
- Familiarity with flight test methods: test card development, FTI requirements, data reduction, and prediction-to-flight correlation
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or MATLAB for analysis, post-processing, and tool development
- Solid understanding of fixed-wing, rotary-wing, or hybrid lift+cruise vehicle aeromechanics
- Working proficiency with aerodynamic analysis tools across fidelity levels - from low-order methods (panel codes, blade element, XFOIL) through mid-fidelity (RANS CFD): sufficient to set up runs, interpret results, and interface with dedicated CFD engineers
- Clear technical communication skills: able to distill complex analysis into concise summaries for engineering and program leadership
Bonus Points For:- Direct experience with eVTOL, tiltrotor, or lift+cruise configurations - including transition corridor analysis, transition schedule definition, and rotor-wing aerodynamic interaction
- Background in hybrid-electric propulsion performance modeling: energy management strategy, battery sizing trades, and BSFC/TSFC integration into mission analysis
- Experience designing internal flows, including ducting, intakes, and cooling flows
- Rotor and/or propeller design experience
- Handling qualities assessment experience using ADS-33 or FAA/EASA equivalents
- Exposure to flight simulation environments: JSBSim, Simulink/FlightGear, or equivalent
- Experience with certification under FAA Part 23, Part 27, or EASA SC-VTOL frameworks
- Background in aeroelastics or structural loads as they relate to flight envelope definition
$203,000 - $280,000 a year
We encourage you to apply even if you aren't an exact match for our open role as many of our team members come from nontraditional backgrounds.
