Aircraft Design and Competition Flight Vehicles

SAE Aero Design at Purdue (SAE Purdue), where Aaryan served as Chief Engineer of the Regular Class competition aircraft from May 2025 onward.

Led the aircraft through the full conceptual-design-to-flight-test cycle across the Mk1, Mk2, and competition iterations, reviewing trade studies across three sub teams and driving each design revision from the initial Mk1 proof-of-concept flight to the flight-ready competition build. The Mk2 was the first team aircraft to land without a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

Result: The team flew to a successful landing and placed 16th overall at SAE Aero Design East 2026.

AAE 251 Introduction to Aircraft and Spacecraft Design at Purdue, a design-intensive course Aaryan also supported as an undergraduate teaching assistant and grader.

Designed a non-human moon-landing mission end to end, focusing on mission planning and spacecraft design to size and lay out the vehicle for its objectives. In parallel he served as a teaching assistant and grader for AAE 251, leading study sessions on aircraft and spacecraft design principles and MATLAB debugging for the design projects.

Result: The AAE 251 mission design report is available from the Academia section of this site via OneDrive.

Purdue Aerial Robotics Team (PART), where Aaryan served as an Aerodynamics Engineer during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Used XFLR5 for airfoil and wing analysis on the team's aircraft, and applied engineering solutions to resolve manufacturing issues with molds, carbon fiber, and internal structures. The role connected the aerodynamic design of the lifting surfaces to the practical realities of building and finishing them.

Result: The aircraft design and manufacturing work is detailed on the Purdue Aircraft Teams page.

AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) during the 2022-2023 academic year, an early team aircraft project in Aaryan's aircraft design history at Purdue.

Helped build a competition aircraft for the Design/Build/Fly competition, contributing to the design and construction of the airframe while carrying a full course load through the academic year. The project was an early hands-on introduction to translating an aircraft design into a flying, competition-ready build.

Result: The team secured a 47th-place finish at the Design/Build/Fly competition.