Proposal of Egyptian students ranks first in AIAA’s DBF

CAIRO - 9 January 2019: The proposal of a team of students at Cairo University’s school of engineering ranked first in the Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Cessna Aircraft Company, and Raytheon Missile Systems.

The team will have to submit the design report by February 22, and hopefully be eligible for the contest fly-off to be held on April 11 - 14. The contestant teams are currently 113 who got admitted out of 140.

According to the AIAA website, in the contest fly-off stage, “student teams will design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft which can best meet the specified mission profile.”

All the components of the aircraft to be fabricated by the team in that competition are locally made except for the engine and the control board. The university funds the project by 50 percent, while the rest is covered by the students.



The Egyptian team studies at the Department of Aerospace Engineering which was founded in 1956, and designed a fighter jet called Helwan 300 in the 1960s. The aircraft was tested but was never used in combat because of the six day war in 1967. However, a model of which is displayed in the Air Force Museum.