Aiden McDougal
Aiden is pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering after earning his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. He began his career at NASA, building flight simulators for hybrid-electric commercial aviation research under the SUSAN project. His work was featured at SciTech 2024, and he led a team to win the 2024 NASA Space Apps Global Hackathon in Cleveland.
At Gulfstream Aerospace, Aiden worked across Systems Safety, Simulation, Flight Dynamics and Flight Test Instrumentation. He automated fault analysis and validation, helped develop a hardware-in-the-loop simulation protocol that produced seven-figure savings in six months, and built a flight-test data system that reduced review timelines from weeks to less than 24 hours. He later developed real-time health monitoring for data-acquisition hardware aboard the test fleet.
Aiden brings that experience leading automation and test-system development at major aerospace organizations to Vanta Aero. He leads with the belief that exceptional engineering must be matched by exceptional customer service—clear communication, responsive support and practical solutions built around each client’s needs.
