AIAA's Design, Build, Fly competition challenges university teams to design, fabricate and fly remote controlled aircraft to meet a specific mission profile. The 2026 challenge required aircraft to carry a payload of rubber ducks, while deploying a banner mid-flight. 

My Role

I was a member of the manufacturing team who was responsible for the fabrication of the aircraft components and assembly. This meant working directly with composite materials, understanding their properties and handling, and understanding the fundamentals of building lightweight structural components, built to survive flight loads and landings.

The fuselage seen below was constructed as a carbon fiber tube, utilizing a 3D printed mold with vacuum bagging. The molds were printed to the exact geometry of the fuselage, with carbon fiber fabric laid over the mold and soaked in epoxy, which was then sealed in a vacuum bag to remove air and allowed the epoxy to cure. Working through this process taught me about the full process of composite layups, highlighting the importance of fiber orientation, epoxy and hardener ratios, wet layup technique, and vacuum bag sealing. 

The wings where constructed in a different fashion, first starting off being cut from foam using a CNC foam wire cutter, where a heated wire is used to slice to foam using a programmed airfoil profile. Afterwards, the foam is wrapped in fiber class fabric, wet with epoxy, followed by a strip of carbon fiber on the leading edge for added strength. The wing is then cured with a mylar mold, inside a vacuum bag, allowing it to cure. This approach resulted in a strong and durable wing, with the foam providing the airfoil shape, and the fiberglass skin carrying the tensile and bending loads during flight. A similar approach was used for the tail surfaces. Afterwards I also assisted in assembly of the components to get the plane ready for competition. 

What I learned

Working on the manufacturing team was one of the most beneficial hands-on engineering experience I had during my time at SDSU. These include:

• Mixing epoxy and hardener - ensuring accurate ratio and temperature effects on cure time. 

• Vacuum bagging technique - achieving consistent pressure and identifying any leaks.

• Carbon fiber and fiberglass layup - understand fabric orientation, ply count, and how they affect stiffness and strength.

• Examining part quality - learning to identify any defects such as, voids, dry spots, or delamination, using a post visual inspection.