VISHAL PANCHAL
Aerospace Engineer
MSc · University of Leeds · 2025 – 2026
Areas of expertise
Engineering journey
The flight path so far
Jul 2020 – Jun 2024
B.Tech Mechanical Engineering
Rajasthan Technical University · Kota, India
Graduated top of the state university with a 9.03 CGPA. Built the mechanical foundations — Strength of Materials, Theory of Machines, Engineering Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Manufacturing Processes and Industrial Engineering — the bedrock the aerostructures and systems work now stands on.
2023 – 2024
Electric Vehicle Conversion — Team Lead
B.Tech Major Project · India
Led a team of six converting a petrol Omni van to electric. Integrating a motor, battery pack and drivetrain into a chassis built for combustion.
Jun 2024 – Jun 2025
Graduate Engineer Trainee — NPD
Artasia · Jaipur, India
New product development for export-grade products. Learned how a theoretically sound design meets a real production line, cost and delivery.
2025 – 2026
MSc Aerospace Engineering
University of Leeds · Leeds, UK
Aerospace Structures, Advanced Finite Element Analysis, Aerospace Systems Engineering and Advanced Aerodynamics at the core — extended by Spacecraft Dynamics and Control, Advanced Manufacturing, Surface Engineering and Coatings, a Team Design Project and the Professional Project.
Mar 2026 – Apr 2026
Aerospace Structures & Materials Intern
Brahmastra Aerospace & Defence · Remote, India
Damage-tolerance assessment of CFRP structures under impact and fatigue. FEA in Abaqus on composite laminates with layup recommendations.
Apr 2026 – Present
UAV & Rocket Design Intern
Mars Exploration · Remote, India
Designing UAV and rocket components from aerodynamic first principles to CAD, with rocket apogee and stability margin predicted in OpenRocket.
Next
Aerospace Career
Systems Engineering · Aerostructures · Stress / FEA · United Kingdom
Seeking graduate and internship roles in aerospace systems engineering — alongside stress analysis, aerostructures and structural engineering — across the UK aerospace sector. Available now, with UK Graduate Route eligibility after MSc completion.
Flight analysis & selected work
Aerodynamics, structures & systems
Apogee prediction, stability-margin calculation and CP/CG optimisation underpin the UAV and rocket design work below.
Challenge
A VTOL platform must survive two very different load cases — vertical lift like a rotorcraft and cruise like a fixed-wing — without carrying excess mass, all inside a UK CAA airworthiness envelope.
Methodology
Requirements capture translated airworthiness and safety needs into design constraints. CAD geometry was assessed with FEA in Abaqus, and material selection was validated with tensile testing on Aluminium H15 and POM using Instron machines — feeding real data back into the simulation through iterative refinement.
Results
- Weight-efficient structural concept satisfying CAA constraints
- Material characterisation data gave FEA credibility over assumed values
- Iterative refinement resolved stress concentrations at critical junctions
Lessons
- Stiffening to clear a stress concentration adds mass exactly where you are trying to save it — every fix must be checked against the whole system.
- Regulation shapes the structure from the first sketch, not as a box-ticking step at the end.
Engineering philosophy
“Engineering begins with curiosity and ends with a number you can defend.”
Every analysis carries the weight of its assumptions. I work to make those assumptions visible — and to bound a result rather than oversell it. A number I cannot defend is a number I will not ship.
Calculation and manufacture have to close the loop. A stress contour that cannot survive a real tolerance, a real mesh refinement or a real machining limit is not a finished result — it is a draft.
I value clear caveats over clean conclusions. The engineer who can name what their model misses is the engineer you want sitting between the simulation and the part.
Technical toolkit
Systems dashboard
Simulation & Analysis
CAD & Design
Systems Engineering
Manufacturing
Destination