Aerospace Association Picks 2022 Design/Build/Fly Winners

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) announces the winners of the 26th annual AIAA/Textron Aviation/Raytheon Technologies Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition.

Winners

• First Place ($3,000): Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga. 
• Second Place ($2,000): Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Third Place ($1,500): FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria
• Best Report Score ($100): FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria

The 2022 competition returned to an in-person format hosted by Textron Aviation in Wichita, KS. More than 700 engineering students made up 69 university teams (60 teams from the United States, nine international teams) who spent the weekend testing their radio-controlled aircraft.

This year’s DBF objective was to design, build and test an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to deliver and drop vaccine components. Missions included deployment of the aircraft, staging of vaccination syringes and delivery of environmentally sensitive vaccine vial packages. More details about the mission requirements can be found on the DBF website here. 

“Aerospace trains us to adapt to the unexpected," says Dan Dumbacher, AIAA executive director. "It’s a good lesson for students as they enter this vibrant and meaningful field.”

“We owe our thanks for the success of the DBF competition to the efforts of many volunteers from Textron Aviation, Raytheon Technologies, and the AIAA sponsoring technical committees: Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Flight Test, and Design Engineering," says Russ Althof, director of the DBF organizing committee. "These volunteers collectively set the rules for the contest, publicize the event, gather entries, judge the written reports and judge the fly-off in Wichita.”

The 2023 DBF Competition will be held in April 2023 and hosted by Raytheon Technologies in Tucson, AZ.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.