Third Annual Design & Build Event Closely Contested

On 09 June 2023, the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), an international non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of vertical flight, announced the winners of its third-annual Design-Build-Vertical-Flight (DBVF) Student Competition.

Auburn University prevailed, with the University of Maryland taking second place, and McGill University finishing strongly in third place.

By virtue of its annual remote-control, electric-powered Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) DBVF competition, the Vertical Flight Society seeks to encourage and cultivate student interest in unmanned aircraft technology and small air vehicle design and fabrication. The competition is designed to develop hands-on skills and familiarization with electric VTOL (eVTOL) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technology at the university level, thereby helping to prepare successive generations of engineers and leaders to push the limits of subject technologies perpetually futureward.

The 2022-2023 request for proposal (RFP) published in August 2022 challenged competing teams to build an eVTOL aircraft weighing no more than twenty-pounds and capable of carrying a payload of at least two-pounds with sufficient endurance to complete the demanding competition requirements. In addition, teams’ aircraft had to be capable of flying manually and autonomously.

Eleven universities from across North America and Europe entered the competition in September 2022 and were approved to compete based on the acceptability of their respective plans and technical approaches. All 11 teams submitted Preliminary Design Reports in December 2022, and the teams with the top-five ranked reports—Cooper Union, Delft University of Technology, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Maryland, and the University of Michigan—were each awarded $300 to offset, if only nominally, construction costs and competition travel expenses.

Seven schools— Auburn University, Cooper Union, McGill University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison—progressed to submit Final Technical Report proposals on 08 May 2023.

Five schools advanced to the final round. In addition to the three winning teams, Michigan and Vaughn also attended the DBVF competition fly-off, and the University of Michigan received an honorable mention. Notably, Auburn University completed all aspects of the demanding competition, including completing circuits under both manual control and fully autonomous flight.

For purpose of increasing the challenge of combining VTOL requirements with efficient, high-speed forward flight, 2023’s event saw the overall size of the competition course expanded. The fly-off, held 06 through 08 June at Churchville, Maryland’s Harford County Airport (0W3), was hosted by SURVICE Engineering’s Applied Technology Operation (ATO).

VFS DBVF program director and NASA Ames Research Center staff member Dr. Jason K. Cornelius stated: “The long-range endurance course in this year’s event pushed teams to consider out of the box UAS configurations. Combining challenging tail-sitter and lift + cruise configurations with high on-site winds presented a truly real-world test environment for the students. I was greatly impressed by the ingenuity and resilience of the students and am looking forward to the continued growth of the event.”

VFS Director of Strategy Mike Hirschberg remarked: “Every one of the teams had to overcome formidable obstacles in this competition, including workload, manufacturing challenges, and numerous crashes. All the students learned a tremendous amount, which is the main purpose of the DBVF competition.”

The Vertical Flight Society encourages universities from around the world to form teams and take part in 2024’s DBVF competition—which is slated to, again, be held at Churchville, Maryland’s Harford County Airport.

Established in 1943 as the American Helicopter Society by the visionaries of the early helicopter industry, the Vertical Flight Society espouses the belief that technological cooperation and collaboration are essential to the development and proliferation of new aircraft technologies and types. As the American Helicopter Society championed the advent and rise of the conventional helicopter, so the Vertical Flight Society fosters the advancement of today’s revolutionary rotorcraft.

FMI: www.vtol.org