Jeffrey Buskirk — Aerospace / Propulsion Engineer

About

// suit check at the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars

I'm a rising junior in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Arizona (W.A. Franke Honors College, 4.0 GPA), and a U.S. citizen. My focus is propulsion, CFD, and aero-thermal analysis — but I'm just as at home on a mill, a lathe, or a test stand.

I've optimized compressor aerodynamics at Boom Supersonic and Honeywell, validated solid-rocket-motor hardware at R3 Aerospace, and I lead a student team building liquid rocket engines from scratch. I like the hardest problems in propulsion, and I like shipping real hardware fast.

CFD · Fluent · CFX · CFD++ · STAR-CCM+ Meshing · Pointwise · HELDEN FEA · Abaqus · ANSYS Thermal · NASA CEA CAD · NX · SolidWorks · Fusion 360 Code · Python · MATLAB · C++ Hardware · mill · lathe · additive

Experience

Summer 2026

Engine Systems Engineering Intern

Boom Supersonic

Tiger-team member resolving a mission-critical low-pressure-compressor stall-margin issue — root-caused high Rotor 1 incidence and ran a DOE across IGV and rotor angles (60–100% corrected speed) to recover positive stall margin. Built an AI-integrated DOE dashboard and an unsteady-CFD pipeline, and redesigned the aft-turbine outlet diffuser to hit a <1.77% pressure-loss target while cutting cost ~50% (sheet metal vs. spin casting).

Winter 2026 – Present

Aerospace Engineering Intern

R3 Aerospace

Designed and validated solid-rocket-motor bulkheads for high-pressure operation, using ANSYS FEA to ensure structural integrity through hydro-proof and static-fire conditions; bridged design and manufacturing to resolve fabrication and tolerance challenges.

Fall 2025 – Present

Chief Engineer & Propulsion Manager

Wildcat Rocket Engineering

Lead propulsion for a student liquid-rocket team — full story in the Rocketry section below.

Summer 2025

Compressor Aerodynamic Design & Analysis Intern

Honeywell Aerospace — Fans & Compressors

Analyzed HTF NG compressor performance maps in ANSYS CFX (~0.5% adiabatic-efficiency gain), built a FAST 1D-to-CFX benchmarking capability new to the team (~1% gain toward the 10,000 lbf thrust target), and ran large-scale CFD on Linux HPC with MATLAB tooling that cut post-processing runtime 20%.

Fall 2025 – Summer 2026

Engineering Research Associate

Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM)

Led a 3-person team delivering a CO₂-removal test campaign for Paragon Space Development and ICES; designed and built the AC electrical control system for adsorption/desorption cycling. Co-authored a peer-reviewed ICES 2026 conference paper (see below).

Summer 2024

Test Engineering Intern

Honeywell Aerospace

Designed test articles for the updated RS-25 fuel/oxidizer valves (NASA Artemis SLS) in NX with cryogenic protocols; ran actuator testing for NASA Gateway docking hardware in cleanroom thermal-cycle environments; built a C++ controller for EVTOL actuation rigs (adopted by the customer); supported TVC actuator testing under a DoD contract.

Spring 2025

Risk Management Engineering Intern

U-Haul

Designed trailer-mover hardware in SolidWorks and validated a 200-component assembly in ANSYS Static Structural to mitigate ergonomic injury risk; presented to management (patent pending).

Rocketry

Project 01 · Wildcat Rocket Engineering

Jeb — a 1,400 lbf liquid engine

As Chief Engineer & Propulsion Manager, I own end-to-end development of a 1,400 lbf nitrous–ethanol liquid engine (named Jeb, an homage to Kerbal Space Program) — design, manufacturing, a custom test stand, and cold-flow / static-fire campaigns. First team ever to launch a liquid rocket twice in one competition.

1,400 lbf

thrust

1500 psi

hydro-proof

1st

FAR-OUT, Cat. A

A. Hard-start investigation

When a hard start failed the engine's first hot-fire, I led the investigation — used ANSYS to identify the combustion-instability driver and redesigned the engine to resolve it.

B. Nozzle & thermal

Led CFD/FEA nozzle trade studies with NASA CEA and ANSYS Transient Thermal, quantifying wall heat flux to size wall thickness and select a copper nozzle.

C. Qualification testing

Spearheaded qualification for competition eligibility — hydrostatic proofs to 1500 psi and cold-flow tests characterizing electronic-dump and injector behavior.

D. Team, sponsors & logistics

Trained the team in ANSYS, CAD, and machining; secured ANSYS, SendCutSend, and Boltline/Stoke sponsorships; ran logistics and BOM tracking in Boltline.

ANSYS Fluent velocity contour through the nozzle

// ANSYS Fluent — velocity contour: flow chokes at the throat and accelerates to ~2,415 m/s through the bell

Project 02 · fully student-designed

Jeb Lite — my new rocket

A ground-up, fully student-designed N₂O/E98 liquid rocket — regeneratively-cooled chamber, pintle injector, and a Rao bell nozzle, all developed with my own analysis and CFD tooling, then machined and flown.

// full-vehicle CAD assembly — engine, tank, and recovery (SolidWorks)

Jeb Lite on the launch rail in the desert

// integration & launch operations — Arizona desert test site

8:1

thrust-to-weight

600 lbf

max thrust

N₂O / E98

propellants

100%

student-designed

A. Pintle injector

Designed and CFD-modeled the pintle / impinging injector flow field to tune mixing and stability for the N₂O/E98 combination.

B. Rao bell nozzle

Parametric 80% Rao bell contour generated from my own Python + MATLAB tools, then meshed and run in Fluent via an automated pipeline.

C. Regenerative cooling

Sized cooling channels and quantified wall heat flux to keep the chamber within thermal margin under sustained fire.

D. Poppet valve & feed

Designed a custom poppet valve and feed system, detailed for machining and hydro-tested before integration.

Rao bell nozzle contour — 80% Rao bell — chamber, throat & bell

Wall heat-flux distribution — Regen: wall heat-flux distribution

Cooling channel geometry — Regen: cooling-channel sizing

Research & Code

Publication

Further Design and Initial AI&T of the Carbon Dioxide Removal System for SAM

G. Hentzen, K. Staats, A. Ackerman, J. Buskirk, B. Phoebe, J. C. Knox

55th International Conference on Environmental Systems · ICES-2026-524 · 2026

Read the paper ↗ Slides ↗

SAM 4-bed carbon dioxide removal assembly — SAM 4-bed CO₂ removal assembly — I designed & built the AC control system (right)

Talk

Compressor Aerodynamics — Boom Supersonic intern final presentation

Summary of my summer engine-systems work, presented to Boom engineering & management.

View presentation ↗

nozzle-cfd — parametric nozzle design & CFD automation

A Python package I wrote to design a Rao bell nozzle from throat/exit/chamber parameters, mesh it, drive a Fluent solve, and post-process — so the whole team can iterate geometry in minutes instead of hours. Powers the Jeb Lite nozzle above.

nozzlecfd/geometry.pyPython

# Parabolic-approximation Rao bell contour (chamber -> exit)
def _rao_contour(r):
    Rt = r["throat_dia"] / 2.0
    Re = r["exit_dia"] / 2.0
    th_n, th_e = radians(r["theta_n"]), radians(r["theta_e"])
    Rn = 0.382 * Rt              # throat downstream arc

    # inflection point + parabola coefficients
    x_Ni = Rn * sin(th_n)
    r_Ni = Rt + Rn * (1 - cos(th_n))
    m1, m2 = tan(th_n), tan(th_e)
    L_par = 2 * (Re - r_Ni) / (m1 + m2)
    a = (m2 - m1) / (2 * L_par)
    b = m1 - 2 * a * x_Ni
    c = r_Ni - a*x_Ni**2 - b*x_Ni
    return sample_sections(a, b, c, ...)

nozzle-cfd/

geometry → mesh → Fluent journal → post-processing pipeline for rocket nozzles.

PythonANSYS FluentNumPy

rao_nozzle.m · altitude_calculator.m

MATLAB method-of-characteristics nozzle design plus altitude & performance tools.

MATLAB

Jeb / Jeb Lite CAD

Full engine & rocket CAD, pintle injector, poppet valve, nozzle molds, structural FEA.

SolidWorksSTEPANSYS

// test operations — Wildcat Rocket Engineering

Drop-in slot → add your GitHub link here and I'll wire it across the site.

Awards

◈ 2×

Honeywell Additive Manufacturing Contest Winner

Two-time winner of the Honeywell Aerospace AM design contest.

◈ 1st

FAR-OUT Competition — Category A

First place; first team ever to launch a liquid rocket twice in one competition.

◈

Innovation Award — VEX Robotics Worlds

Recognized for engineering innovation at the world championship.

◈ PAT

Patent Pending

Trailer-mover ergonomic-safety mechanism (U-Haul).

◈ 4.0

W.A. Franke Honors College

4.0 GPA, Aerospace Engineering, University of Arizona.

◈

Published Author

Co-author on an ICES 2026 peer-reviewed conference paper.