The AIAA Design/Build/Fly competition is held annually by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. A different mission is introduced each year in order to challenge teams across the globe. The 2022 competition incorporated a humanitarian mission which involved deploying "vaccine vial packages." The 2022 competition took place in Wichita, KS. The WVU DBF team placed 50th in this competition. The 2023 competition incorporated electronic warfare elements such as the requirement to fly with a jamming antenna on one wingtip. The 2023 competition took place in Tucson, Arizona. The WVU DBF team placed 22nd in this competition.

Because I had over a decade of RC plane build and flying experience going into the project, I was involved heavily in the design of the aircraft. During my first year on DBF, I built the wings for each of the prototypes with hot wire foam cutting. The competition aircraft's wings were foam core composite. I designed and 3D printed several iterations of wing mounts. I taught other students how to build RC aircraft in all aspects of the craft including how to set up servos, how to set up push rods and control linkages, how to set up propulsion-related hardware and electronics, how to apply Monokote, and more. I worked with a great team and made a showing at my first student design competition. 

The week before the competition, I was flying the aircraft when I suddenly lost control of elevator and rudder. The craft experienced a rapid unplanned disassembly on contact with the ground, and the team immediately set to work building another. There were several small changes made to the design which seemed benign, but proved at the competition to drastically reduce the stability of the aircraft. This, coupled with 30-50 mph winds on the first two days of the competition meant that I crashed the aircraft every time we attempted to complete a mission. This was devastating. Nevertheless, we rallied and brought a working aircraft back to the runway to try again each time our team was called to the flight line. Though we never really flew much at competition, it was an incredible learning experience. My first year of DBF taught me much about project management, team morale, and how to handle new team dynamics. I also learned many new hard skills such as improved CAD design skills, laser cutting, composites, and hot wire foam cutting.