Project Description:
University of Maryland Design, Build, Fly is a team of aerospace engineers representing the University of Maryland, College Park in the AIAA Design, Build, Fly competition. A new rule set is released each year, meaning each year's team must start the design process from the ground up and create their own unique aircraft tailored to the mission requirements and regulations. The 2025-26 competition involved designing a "Banner-Towing Bush Plane" that carried passengers and cargo (rubber ducks and hockey pucks) as well as deployed, towed, and released a banner. This was a full-year capstone, starting with rules analysis, brainstorming, and preliminary design. A six-page proposal was then submitted to AIAA, and the top half of teams were selected to proceed to the design report and competition phase. The team hosted a preliminary design review in October 2025. A prototype aircraft was constructed and test-flown in mid-December, highlighting areas the design could be improved and hinting at very high-performance. A 60-page technical report was submitted to AIAA at the end of February detailing team organization, initial design philosophy, score optimization, subsystem design and analysis, manufacturing, and testing. UMD DBF hosted a critical design review in early March, and also conducted a day of wind tunnel testing at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel to validate design decisions and compare against CFD simulations. Flight testing of the prototype and competition aircraft proceeded concurrent to manufacturing throughout March and April. All-day flight tests two to three times a week determined the maximum mission performance of the aircraft, named Duck Force One. UMD DBF performed extremely well at the flyoff in Wichita from April 16-19, achieving a score of 12th place internationally and 10th place nationally.
