2000
Club founded
FoundingThe City College chapter of AIAA Design/Build/Fly begins.
Since 2000 · CCNY
Our history
Founded in the year 2000, we have long-since been a serious team at City College where students get hands-on aerospace experience. We have grown in size and steadily climbed the rankings of the DBF competition.
12aircraft completed to date
30+students on the team each year
5thour best Detailed Design Report ranking, of 101 teams.
29th2026 Design Proposal rank, of 175 teams
Season by season
See how our team has evolved over the years. Yellow highlights represent significant milestones. Hover over a year to read more.
Highlight Fly-off result Report or proposal result Ranks are shown as place out of teams.
2000–2007 Early years
2001
CityHawk
The first aircraft in our records, named CityHawk.
2002
Falcon I
Fly-off 26/35
Our first fly-off in the records: 26th of 35 teams.
Fly-off rank: 26 of 351stlast
2004
Report ranked 12th of 37
Report highlightFly-off 28/37Report 12/37
The design report ranked 12th of 37 teams, in the top third of the field, while the aircraft placed 28th at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 28 of 371stlast
2005
Special Delivery
The team's aircraft this year was named Special Delivery.
2006
Spartan
Fly-off 37/49
Placed 37th of 49 teams at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 37 of 491stlast
2007
Infinite Janus
Fly-off 29/50Report 16/50
Placed 29th of 50 teams at the fly-off, with a report ranked 16th of 50.
Fly-off rank: 29 of 501stlast
2010–2015 Finding our footing
2010
Aphrodite (Αφροδιτη)
Fly-off 39/69
Placed 39th of 69 teams at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 39 of 691stlast
2011
CCNY UAV
Fly-off 34/82
Placed 34th of 82 teams at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 34 of 821stlast
2012
Report ranked 20th of 68
Report 20/68
Our report placed 20th of 68 teams.
2013
Fly-off and report
Fly-off 51/81Report 36/81
Placed 51st of 81 teams at the fly-off, with a report ranked 36th of 81.
Fly-off rank: 51 of 811stlast
2014
Report ranked 18th of 80
Fly-off 38/80Report 18/80
The report moved from 36th to 18th in a single year, and the aircraft placed 38th of 80 teams at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 38 of 801stlast
2015
Flying Beaver
Report highlightFly-off 57/84Report 15/84
The report scored 92.00 and ranked 15th of 84 teams. The aircraft placed 57th at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 57 of 841stlast
2020–2021 A breakout report and a return
2020
Brolic Beaver
Best rankingReport 5/101
The fly-off was cancelled, so teams were ranked on report score alone, calculated the same way as in previous years. Our report placed 5th of 101 teams, the best ranking in our records.
2021
Back at the fly-off
HighlightFly-off 36/92Proposal 16/100+
Placed 36th of 92 teams, with a proposal ranked 16th of more than 100 submissions. The team spent $3,141.70 and raised $776.
Fly-off rank: 36 of 921stlast
2023–today The climb
2023
Proposal ranked 40th of 135
Proposal 40/135
Our proposal placed 40th of 135 submissions.
2024
Proposal ranked 16th of 149
HighlightFly-off 80/107Proposal 16/149
The proposal rose to 16th of 149 submissions. The aircraft placed 80th of 107 teams at the fly-off.
Fly-off rank: 80 of 1071stlast
2025
Beaver X-1STP
Fly-off 71/112
Team Beaver Works built the X-1 supersonic test plane, which deployed an autonomous glider, and moved up nine places to 71st of 112 teams. The team raised and spent about $10,000 out of pocket to attend.
Fly-off rank: 71 of 1121stlast
2026
The Duckrivative
HighlightProposal 29/175
The Broke Beavers' design proposal jumped 64 places in a year, from 93rd to 29th of 175 teams, after the team wrote its own simulator and ran 2 million aircraft configurations through it.
Case study: the Duckrivative
The 2025–26 competition asked teams to build a banner-towing bush plane. It had to fly rubber duck passengers and hockey puck cargo, then tow a banner and release it on command.
To choose a design, the team wrote its own simulator, the Lap Optimization & Design Geometry Evaluator (LODGE), and ran 2 million aircraft configurations through it. Sensitivity analysis showed that payload capacity would earn more points than minimizing wingspan, so we built a high-capacity fuselage.
The wing is balsa and basswood with carbon fiber spars. The banner mechanism, payload trays and fuselage brackets are 3D printed, and the landing gear is carbon fiber from a wet layup over printed molds.
| Wingspan | 59.5 in |
|---|---|
| Fuselage | 65 in long, 8.5 in wide, 6 in tall |
| Layout | High semi-tapered wing, conventional tail, tricycle gear |
| Airfoil | SD7043 |
| Max takeoff weight | 19.68 lb (Mission 2) |
| Planned payload | 39 ducks and 13 pucks |
| Propulsion | Scorpion SII-4035-380 motor, APC 18×12E propeller, 6S 4500 mAh battery |
| Banner | Ripstop nylon, 118.75 in long in the Mission 3 plan |
Be part of the next chapter.
New members join every year, and every aircraft we fly was designed and built by students.
Join the team Partner with us
Design/Build/Fly @ The City College of New York
Grove School of Engineering
© 2026 City College Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics