Aerodynamics & CFD Internship – Long-Endurance UAV Design

Company Description

Wren Aerospace B.V. is a Dutch start-up developing high-endurance unmanned aircraft for advanced connectivity, sensing and defence applications. Our work spans lower-altitude long-endurance aircraft and hydrogen–solar high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS), designed to bridge the gap between satellites and conventional UAVs.

Wren Aerospace is incubated at the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre Noordwijk and co-funded by the European Union.

Role Description

This is a full-time Aerodynamics & CFD Internship based in Noordwijk-Binnen, Netherlands. The intern will support the aerodynamic development of Griffin, Wren’s long-endurance UAV platform, and contribute to early aerodynamic work on our larger aircraft concepts.

The work will include aircraft performance modelling, aerodynamic configuration trade studies, airfoil and wing design, stability considerations, propeller–airframe integration and CFD analysis. You will help turn mission-level requirements into aerodynamic inputs for the wider aircraft design, working closely with structures, propulsion and flight-controls engineers.

Day-to-day work may include developing and running CFD models, analysing results, generating aerodynamic load cases, contributing to geometry development and preparing technical reports and design-review material. The role will also support planning and interpretation of wind-tunnel or flight-test data as the programme develops.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing, or recently completed, a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Foundation in aerodynamics, aircraft performance and flight mechanics.
• Demonstrated CFD experience using OpenFOAM, ANSYS Fluent, Star-CCM+, CFX or similar.
• Experience with MATLAB, Python or similar tools for engineering analysis and automation.
• Familiarity with airfoil analysis, lifting-line/BEM methods, propeller modelling or aircraft sizing is an advantage.
• Experience interpreting wind-tunnel, PIV, flight-test or other experimental data is beneficial.
• Able to explain modelling assumptions, mesh strategy, boundary conditions, convergence and how results were checked.
• Comfortable working in CAD tools such as Siemens NX, CATIA, SolidWorks or similar.
• Able to work on-site in Noordwijk-Binnen and communicate clearly in English.
• Self-motivated and comfortable taking ownership of well-defined technical work in a start-up environment.
• Please send a CV and, where possible, an example of aerodynamic, CFD or aircraft-design work you have personally completed.