AIAA runs hands-on design competitions that take students from a blank page to a working aircraft, satellite, or proposal. Our flagship effort is Design/Build/Fly.
Now in its fourth decade, DBF challenges student teams to design, fabricate, and fly an uncrewed, electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft against a mission profile that changes every year. Teams are judged on a written design report and flight performance at the fly-off.
It's as close as most undergrads get to a full aircraft development cycle: requirements, trade studies, structural design, manufacturing, integration, and flight test, all against a hard deadline and a live audience of judges.
DBF isn't the only way to compete. AIAA runs a wider slate of competitions students can get involved with.
Paper design competitions modeled on real industry Requests for Proposal (RFPs) — a good fit if you'd rather focus on the engineering write-up than the physical build. They run across several categories:
Aircraft Design (Team & Individual) · Missile Systems Design · Space Design · Engine Design
Browse open competitions ↗A design-build-launch challenge where teams build a satellite-like payload sized to fit inside a soft-drink can, then launch, recover, and analyze it against a mission profile — run jointly with the American Astronautical Society.
Learn more about CanSat ↗DBF team spots and other competition roles open up as the branch grows.