Aerospace / mechanical engineering
Alex Blythe works across propulsion hardware, thermal and fluid analysis, test, verification, technical software, and independent research.
02 — Engineering
Alex's work spans mechanical and structural analysis, propulsion hardware, aeroheating and thermal-load modeling, CFD, instrumentation, test readiness, configuration control, and technical tool development.
Sep 2025 – Present
Aerojet Rocketdyne / L3Harris
Mechanical and structural analysis, design investigations, test readiness, configuration control, and cross-functional propulsion hardware work.
Jun 2025 – Sep 2025
KTEngineering
Liquid rotating detonation engine wet-dress and hot-fire campaign support, instrumentation, telemetry monitoring, and anomaly triage.
May 2024 – Jun 2025
Russell Technical Consulting Services
Aeroheating and thermal-load modeling, team leadership, CFD meshing, and development of a retrieval-assisted aerospace research tool.
03 — Research
Work spans theoretical propulsion, CFD, rocket acoustics, and the technical foundations of long-horizon space systems.
A theoretical propulsion study examining whether energy collected by a Dyson swarm could power a directed laser system to accelerate a solar sail to relativistic velocities.
The work focuses on mathematical modeling and the mission implications of interstellar propulsion.
A practical treatment of the Navier-Stokes foundation, modeling workflow, and aerospace applications of CFD.
An examination of rocket-launch acoustics and what measured acoustic environments mean for vehicle, facility, and payload design.
04 — Software & Tools
Independent software projects focused on engineering workflow, local AI, verification, and bounded automation.
An experimental engineering agent for planning, teaching, executing, and reviewing CFD workflows across first-order methods, OpenFOAM, and supervised Fluent workflows.
A framework for supervised agent execution with explicit authority boundaries, observable tool handoffs, evidence capture, verification, and controlled escalation.
A local document and image-text processing tool for screenshots, scans, forms, and image-based PDFs with adaptive preprocessing, lane selection, uncertainty visibility, and inspectable output.
Road to Type 2
Road to Type 2 explores the propulsion, energy, space infrastructure, resource utilization, settlement, and industrial capabilities required to expand human civilization through the Solar System and ultimately harness energy on a stellar scale.
Read related research06 — Resume
Work spanning propulsion hardware, environmental and dynamic testing, aeroheating and thermal analysis, CFD, modeling and simulation, instrumentation, verification, and technical software.
B.S., Aerospace Engineering
University of Alabama in Huntsville · 2019
A.A.S., Applied Technology
J.F. Drake State Technical College · 2015
Analysis, test, and hardware engineering
Propulsion, thermal/fluid systems, environmental testing, modeling, verification, and technical workflow design
07 — Contact
I welcome conversations about aerospace engineering, propulsion, space systems, and independent research.
Email Alex