Design Build Fly

DBF (Design Build Fly) is an annual airplane competition hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). It gave us the opportunity to design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio-controlled aircraft which can best meet the specified mission profile. 2018-2019 was our first year of taking part in this competition and we stood 36th out of 110 teams. It was important for us to lay the foundation of the aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion and avionics team to tackle this multi dimensional engineering problem as well as document detailed research for the following years.

Design requirements: 1- Folding wings mechanism to reach a given stowed configuration 2- Payload drop functionality 3- Minimum wing span of 5 feet

2019-2020 was our second year of taking part in this competition and we stood 11th out of 106 teams. We saw a huge improvement from our founding year ranking and though the in person event was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic, our report and successful test flights were evaluated.

Design requirements: 1- Banner tow and drop mechanisms (Maximize banner length) 2- Maximize number of passengers 3- Minimize time 4- Maximize laps