AIAA Design, Build, Fly 2025 Competition
- Remi Lehmen
- Sep 3
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 6
During my senior year, I competed in the 2025 AIAA Design, Build, Fly (DBF) competition as part of the University of Tennessee’s aerospace engineering team. DBF is an international challenge where university teams design, build, and fly a custom aircraft to meet a complex set of mission requirements. The 2025 competition tasked teams with designing a “mothership” capable of carrying and deploying a glider, nicknamed the X-1, mid-flight to complete three separate missions.
I was a member of the X-1 sub-team, where I took ownership of designing and manufacturing the release mechanism that mounted on the mothership and allowed it to drop the glider midair. Using SolidWorks extensively, I developed detailed CAD models of the system, refined its geometry for weight savings and durability, and iterated on the design through 3D printing and hands-on prototyping. My work required close collaboration with the mothership sub-team to ensure compatibility and reliability during flight operations.
In addition to mechanical design, I contributed to the Preliminary Design Report (PDR), which qualified our team for competition. I was responsible for drafting technical sections and editing the report to meet strict formatting, clarity, and technical standards. This experience strengthened my ability to communicate complex engineering concepts and adhere to competition documentation requirements.
Our team ultimately built two aircraft, including one that was fully autonomous, to address the demanding missions. In April 2025, we traveled to Tucson, Arizona, where we successfully completed Mission 1 and made multiple attempts at Mission 2, overcoming unexpected technical challenges in real time. While competition rankings were not our primary focus, this experience was invaluable for its emphasis on end-to-end engineering design, teamwork, and iterative problem-solving.
DBF served as my capstone senior design project and allowed me to apply classroom knowledge to a real-world aerospace engineering challenge. I gained hands-on experience in mechanical systems design, systems integration, and flight testing while working as part of a large, multidisciplinary engineering team under competition-level pressure.
