Aircraft System Specialist Internship | CAE

Overview

During my internship at CAE, I worked on aircraft systems simulation software, focusing on testing, validation, and integration. I was assigned specific aircraft systems to own from a testing perspective and worked largely independently, collaborating with senior engineers during reviews and onsite simulator testing.

Due to NDA constraints, implementation details and artifacts are not shown.

Problem & Constraints

Aircraft simulation software must accurately reproduce real-world system behavior. Key constraints included:

• Conformance to aircraft manufacturer specifications and documentation
• Large, legacy C++ codebases with complex system interactions
• Testing environments with limited observability
• Proprietary data and restricted access to internal tooling

Approach & Design

My work centered on test development, debugging, and simulator integration:

• Designed and implemented unit-level and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests in C#, based directly on aircraft manufacturer specifications.
• Owned test logic for assigned systems, which required review and interpretation of technical documentation.
• Investigated and fixed bug reports affecting the LJ45 aircraft simulation suite.
• Performed C++ code reviews to assess correctness and structure.
• Uploaded and executed test code on physical flight simulators, validating system behavior in realistic operational environments.
• Collaborated with senior engineers to review results and refine test coverage.

Internship project conducted under NDA; details intentionally limited.