Virginia Tech Design Build Fly

Meetings are Mondays at 7:00 PM, Room 216 Randolph Hall

The Virginia Tech Design Build Fly Team is a volunteer aircraft design organization. The VT chapter of AIAA serves as our parent organization since the competition is sponsored by AIAA. Every year we construct a new radio controlled model aircraft to complete a given set of missions, which are usually posted in late July.

2006 - 2007 DBF Team
Photo by Erin Crede
We spend several months planning and constructing our aircraft to meet the given specifications, with the actual competition being held towards the end of April.

The experience of designing and building an aircraft from scratch is one that cannot be matched by any classroom experience. It takes what we spend months learning from the books and applies it to the real world. The end result is hopefully a plane that flies as well as the numbers say it should.

In the past the team has pretty much spread the board from second to twenty-eighth place. We are still searching for the elusive number one spot, and hopefully will attain it in the near future!

The team consists primarily of aerospace engineering students with a fascination in radio controlled planes, or just building flying stuff in general. No experience is really necessary, there are enough old folks around to help you learn the ropes. Other majors are not turned away, and are in fact encouraged. There's something for everybody to work on!

If you have an interest in any of this, or just want to come see what we're all about please email Emily Henley at eehenley@vt.edu, or come to one of our weekly meetings!

VTDBF News has moved to a new location. Please follow the link below.

VTDBF News

The AIAA through the Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Design Engineering and Flight Test Technical Committees and the AIAA Foundation invites all university students to participate in the Cessna/ONR Student Design/Build/Fly Competition. The contest will provide a real-world aircraft design experience for engineering students by giving them the opportunity to validate their analytic studies.

Student teams will design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft that can best meet the specified mission profile. The goal is a balanced design possessing good demonstrated flight handling qualities and practical and affordable manufacturing requirements while providing a high vehicle performance.

To encourage innovation and maintain a fresh design challenge for each new year, the design requirements and performance objectives will be updated for each new contest year. The changes will provide new design requirements and opportunities, while allowing for application of technology developed by the teams from prior years.

Cash prizes are $2500 for 1st, $1500 for 2nd and $1000 for 3rd place. The winning teams will be invited to present their designs at the AIAA Flight Test & Evaluation conference.

Rules for the Competition - This page presents the rules for this year's Design Build Fly competition

Emily Henley	Program Manager	eehenley@vt.edu
Eddie Hale	Chief Engineer	lehale@vt.edu
Jake Derlaga	Report Coordinator	derlaga@vt.edu
Laura Degitz	Finances and Records Officer	ldegitz@vt.edu
Michael Palles	Fuselage Leader	lmpall4@vt.edu
Joe Diner	Mission Leader	tubajoe@vt.edu
Michelle Perez	Wing Leader	mkperez@vt.edu
TC Montague	Tail Leader	tcmontague@vt.edu
Christopher Steines	Propulsion Leader	steinesc@vt.edu
Nick Lockhart	CAD Leader	nlock07@vt.edu

This year's photographs (password required) can be found at:
The VTDBF Gallery

Photos from previous years (public access) cand be found at:
Previous Year Pictures.

To obtain a username and password, please email the Gallery Administrator.

Financial Need

Virginia Tech DBF is an all-volunteer, extracurricular design team. As such, we are almost entirely funded by fundraisers and commercial donations. Last year’s operating expenses totaled $9000, and with 24 students going to this year's competition our expenses should near that mark again. For this reason, the VT DBF Team requests your donation. All funding is a tax-deductible 501(c)3 donation. We gladly accept donations of materials and tools as well. Any assistance will greatly help the timely and optimized design of our aircraft.

Donating

As a sponsor, Virginia Tech DBF will recognize your company in a number of ways. First, we will include your company in any written information including our presentation board which is displayed at engineering open houses, posted outside our lab, and taken to competition. Your company will also be added to the sponsor list on our webpage. Secondly, your company will receive a copy of our promotional DVD with footage from the building of the craft, flight tests, and the competition itself. Lastly, we will place a copy of your company’s logo* on the final plane flown at competition.

This competition is highly documented in aerospace and model aircraft publications, including Model Airplane News and Model Aviation (official AMA publication), and teams from around the world will be in attendance, anxious not only to compete, but to peruse the competing aircraft. We will also be sure to include your company on our team website and any publications we produce for the competition.

* Should you choose to accept our proposal, please send a copy of your logo for use on our aircraft to the address listed below.

Please send donations to:

Virginia Tech Foundation/AOE Dept
215 Randolph, Mail Code 0203
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Make checks payable to the Virginia Tech Foundation, with ‘VTDBF Team’ labeled in the memo line of the check. In order to ensure that your donation is noted and received please send an email to our Treasurer with the date, amount of your donation, and an address where we can send correspondence to keep you updated about the team's progress.

Offical Design Build Fly Site - This is the official site for the design build fly competition.

Rules for the Competition - This page presents the rules for this year's Design Build Fly competition

Competition FAQ's - A frequently asked questions page regarding interpretation of competition rules

AOE Department at Virginia Tech

TerraBreak.Org An independent DBF site featuring forums, pictures, and previous year's results

Virginia Tech - Virginia Tech's Homepage

Virginia Tech AIAA - Virginia Tech's American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chapter

VT Student Engineer's Council (SEC)

If you have any questions or comments contact our webmaster.

Meetings are Mondays at 7:00 PM, Room 216 Randolph Hall

VTDBF News has moved to a new location. Please follow the link below.

2007 - 2008 Sponsors

2006 - 2007 Sponsors

2005 - 2006 Sponsors

Financial Need

Donating