Is Unreal engine proper for aircraft aerodynamic (airfoil) design?

Agreed, so with the ability to use Niagara as the display-layer, either those tools can be used to export data from a sim and then you can configure Unreal to pick up on it, or you can develop a solution inside Unreal.

Given performance considerations, I’d look into data-channels: Niagara Data Channels | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community