AIAA

UMass Aeronautics is very proud to announce that we have once again placed 1st in New England and 25th internationally (out of 112 teams) in this year's AIAA DBF competition in Tucson, Arizona. This is an enormous achievement for all 30+ undergraduates on our team who have worked tirelessly to get to this point, putting in endless hours of design, testing, and fabrication to complete our aircraft. This season has been full of immeasurable growth, and we cannot wait to see what else is in store for future seasons. A huge shoutout to our seniors who came to Tucson: Jake Simon, Nate Ware, Jimmy Schissel, and Ruwan Aldweib for all their contributions to the team over the past 4 years- thank you for making this program what it is today. Check out our website soon for more information about this year's DBF and our mission videos from Tucson: https://lnkd.in/dHUvfX5j

🏆 RUASRT takes 2nd place at AIAA Design/Build/Fly 2025! 🏆 We’re thrilled to announce that RUASRT has placed 2nd internationally at this year’s AIAA DBF competition in Tucson, Arizona, competing against over 100 university teams from around the world. This achievement is the result of months of design, testing, collaboration, and perseverance. We're proud to represent RMIT University and grateful to our dedicated team, mentors, tech staff, and amazing sponsors who made this journey possible. RMIT University AIAA LEAP Australia Applied Fasteners and Tooling Pty Ltd Silvertone® UAV E-METAL3D 📸 Have a look at the highlights from our flight campaign and time in Arizona! 📡 Stay tuned — we’re just getting started. #RUASRT #AIAADBF2025 #DesignBuildFly #2ndPlace #EngineeringExcellence #UAVInnovation #AerospaceTech #RMITUniversity #STEMSuccess #GlobalCompetition #ThankYouSponsors

I had a great time at #AIAADBF in Tucson this year! The last time I was at TIMPA for AIAA Design/Build/Fly was in 2005 as a volunteer, and the first time was in 2003 as a Virginia Tech team member. This year I was fortunate to attend on behalf of Reliable Robotics Corporation alongside my colleague, Aaron Piercy. It was awesome seeing what's changed (brushless motors, cell phones!) and what hasn't (monokote and the smell of epoxy). The best part was talking aerospace and autonomy with all the passionate students participating in this event from around the world, as well as seeing the dedication and enthusiasm from the staff and volunteers. Looking forward to next year!

Such a great experience being part of the AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition as a Gold Sponsor 🌟! We had the pleasure of meeting talented student teams from around the world — sharing ideas, tech, and a whole lot of aerospace passion ✈️ A big shoutout to our Univeristy Of Arizona AIAA Student Branch and Engineering Design Center team, who went above and beyond to support fellow teams. From 3D printing to laser cutting, they helped get planes back in the air — including a successful flight by University of Michigan AIAA Student Branch. Being part of a community that pushes the boundaries of innovation and teamwork is what makes events like this truly special. We're proud to be in it together! #AIAADBF #AIAA #FutureEngineers #Innovation #STEM #UArizona #Tucson

Our paper "Correlation of High- and Mid-Fidelity Ship Airwake Analysis to Experiment" has been published in the AIAA Journal of Aircraft. I would like to thank my coauthors, Brenden Oates, Prof. Marilyn Smith, and Prof. Juergen Rauleder. We evaluated two ship airwake simulation techniques and correlated computational results with high-quality wind tunnel measurement data obtained at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University by Nicholas Z., Kaijus Palm, and Guillermo Mazzilli. Flowfield results from a high-fidelity, conventional unstructured unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (uRANS) computational fluid dynamics solver and results from a mid-fidelity and computationally efficient lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) solver are compared to each other and to time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) wind tunnel measurements on the Simple Frigate Shape 2 geometry. Overall, the LBM predictions are very similar to FUN3D and PIV, particularly for the headwind condition, with minor losses in magnitude and flow structural detail. Analysis of yawed ship orientations with respect to winds yields more differences between the LBM and FUN3D, as well as to the experiment, when compared to the headwind condition. Both methods predict the airwake frequency content well when the critical flow features are not spatially offset. The LBM simulations offer computational time savings of several orders of magnitude compared to the unstructured uRANS approach. We would like to thank the US Navy and Office of Naval Research for supporting this research. Mr. Oates is supported by a DoD SMART Scholarship, funded by OUSD/R&E (The Under Secretary of Defense-Research and Engineering), National Defense Education Program (NDEP)/BA-1, Basic Research. Our paper is Open Access and available in the link below.

What an incredible experience competing at DBF 2025 in Tucson, Arizona! So many lessons learned and proud to share that UNSW Skylabs placed 1st for our design report — a huge achievement for the team. Massive thanks to everyone for the dedication, hard work, and long hours that made this a reality. #AIAA #DBF2025 #DesignBuildFly #AircraftDesign #StudentEngineering #AerospaceEngineering #Engineering #EngineeringCompetition #UNSW #UNSWSkylabs #Teamwork #Engineeringsuccess #Innovation #Futureengineers

What a year for Colorado Design Build Fly! The team started the year with the goal of completing all 3 flight missions. As the year progressed, there were many challenges including lack of workspace and prototype failures. Through it all, the team designed and built the CU-130: an aircraft capable of completing all 3 flight missions. At competition, the team completed our first flight mission since 2019! As the competition wet on, issues arose including ESC overheating leading to an unsuccessful mission 2 attempt. The team was resilient and came back the next day completing mission 2 with a rebuilt aircraft. Unfortunately, we did not get another flight to complete mission 3. In the end, Colorado DBF placed 44th out of 112 teams internationally. A huge step forward from past years and a foundation for the future of Colorado DBF. We'd like to thank AIAA for hosting the Design Build Fly competition and our sponsor Black Swift Technologies for supporting us this year. See you next year in Wichita!

Proud to share some amazing news! Over the weekend, my son Jason Dionida and his engineering team from Santa Clara University competed in the AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition, and placed 3rd overall out of 112 universities from 14 countries. Even more impressive, this was SCU’s first time ever participating, and they finished as the highest-scoring U.S.-based team. ✈️🔧 The competition brought together more than 1,200 students from around the world to showcase their aerospace engineering skills through innovative design, teamwork, and execution. Congratulations to the entire SCU Design, Build, Fly team on this incredible achievement. Your dedication and hard work truly paid off. The future of aerospace is in good hands!

This past weekend, I had the honor of contributing to a historic moment for the SCU Department of Mechanical Engineering at the 2025 International AIAA Design, Build, Fly Competition. Our SCU Design, Build, Fly team placed 1st in the nation and 3rd overall, marking the university’s first-ever qualification and podium finish in this highly competitive event. What began as an ambitious idea in the Summer of 2024 evolved into a goal driven by determination, collaboration, and resilience. Unlike many of the participating universities, we competed without the backing of a major aerospace sponsor, relying instead on the School of Engineering and a few generous donations to make ends meet. Despite these limitations, we committed ourselves fully to the process: from system design and budgeting, to report writing, finite element analysis, flight testing, and fabrication. We encountered numerous technical and logistical challenges along the way, but each setback became an opportunity to learn, refine, and push forward. Qualifying for the competition was an achievement in itself; placing 7th globally on our Design Report and ultimately earning a spot on the podium was a testament to the team's dedication and engineering excellence. I’m proud to share this accomplishment with my teammates: Derek Nease, Tyler Choo, Michael Cavan, Cole Lourenco, Jason Dionida, Mateo Jovicic, Chris Campanile, and Zane Kempler✅ whose hard work and collaboration were critical to our success. I also want to extend sincere thanks to our advisor, Dr. Mohammad Ayoubi, for his guidance and support, as well as to AIAA CEO Clay Mowry and AIAA Senior Vice President of Membership Engagement Merrie Scott, for their encouraging words at the competition. #AIAADBF #AIAA #NationalChampions

AIAA proudly congratulates its newly elected 2025 Honorary Fellow, The Honorable Steven J. Isakowitz, The Aerospace Corporation Honored “for visionary leadership of The Aerospace Corporation and seminal contributions to a historic change in the U.S. national security space architecture and acquisition models.” 🔗 Learn more: https://bit.ly/3Wm28VS Join us in celebrating aerospace excellence at the #AIAA Awards Gala on Wednesday, 30 April, at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, DC. 🎟️ Get your tickets: https://bit.ly/4cAt1Mp #AIAA