RPI Design Build Fly

Design/Build/Fly (DBF) is an international aircraft design competition in which student teams from universities across the world design, build, and fly a remote controlled aircraft.  Each year the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) presents a new design challenge requiring a completely new aircraft to be created.  The competition is sponsored by the AIAA, Cessna Aircraft, and Raytheon Missile Systems and is focused on the development of unmanned aerial vehicles.  You can find out more about the competition at the Design/Build/Fly website.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's team functions as an extra-curricular activity that meets twice per week in the design phase and as often as possible during the build and test phases.  RPI DBF recently broke into the Top 3 with a 3rd place finish in the 2013 competition.  The team made it's first appearance at the 2007 competition and entered the Top 10 with a 9th place finish (out of 69 teams) in the 2010 competition.