Registration Opens for Build A Plane 2016 Competition

Build A Plane and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced they are hosting their fourth Aviation Design Challenge to promote STEM education among high school students.

The competition, which has spanned 38 states in the past three years, will be open to the first 100 schools that enter. Only one four-member team — including at least one female student and one male student — per school can register.

GAMA will provide its "Fly to Learn" curriculum and five copies of X-Plane airplane design and simulation software to each team. These tools will provide students with engineering and design principles and allow them to modify and fly their designs in a virtual fly-off. Teams will be scored on aerodynamic and performance parameters, and the winning team will get to experience general aviation manufacturing firsthand.

"As we continue to look for innovative ways to attract more young people into the aviation field — whether as pilots, engineers, maintenance professionals, or manufacturers — the Aviation Design Challenge has been a resounding success, which is why we are so proud to sponsor this competition for a fourth year," said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce.

"Just this summer, two of the first-year winners who are now pursuing aerospace engineering degrees in college visited with us at AirVenture to update us about their career paths and how this life-changing contest continues to motivate and benefit them," he added. "There's no better tribute to the value of this highly valuable and accessible educational program than that."

Build A Plane was the winner of a 2015 Flying Editors' Choice Award.