Design Build Fly (DBF) is an annual international competition in which teams design aircraft and compete in a fly-off during spring.  

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Each August, a unique set of rules are released and each team must submit a proposal of their their design by October. Many apply but only 100 are accepted. The teams then prototype and test their designs to best fulfill the requirements and score the most points. An engineering report is submitted in February where each team is graded by their ability to present and justify their engineering decisions. Finally in April, all teams compete in a fly-off and the top ten teams with the highest combined report and fly-off scores are recognized.  

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DBF is an AIAA organized event supported and hosted by many industry sponsors such as Textron and Raytheon, Competition themes often reflect current trends in the aviation industry. It is widely recognized as an opportunity for students to work on an practical, open-ended engineering design problem and practice critical thinking and design analysis. 

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