Approaching Stanford Flight Club 2025

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A P P R O A C H I N G

STANFORD FLIGHT CLUB W H E R E

I D E A S

T A K E

F L I G H T

TABLE OF CONTENT

01. About Stanford Flight Club 02. AIAA Design Build Fly (DBF) 03. Solar Airplane Project (Swift) 04. Aviation 05. Skyrunner (Delivery Drone) + Tornadrone (Tornado Drone) 06. Fly Days 07. Project Grants

STANFORD FLIGHT CLUB A B O U T

U S

Stanford Flight Club (formerly known as SUAVE) was founded in 2014 by eight aerospace undergraduates, graduates, and alumni who saw the need for hands-on, applied aerospace engineering on campus.

Since then, the program has expanded into a much broader scope.

Stanford Flight Club welcomes students from any major with an interest in aviation and engineering or a desire to try something new!

Through student-led project teams, members learn crucial skills for academia and industry. Opportunities include participation in intercollegiate competitions, access to provided funding and tools for student-led projects, and engagement with research labs and aerospace companies.

BE INVOLVED! Stanford Flight Club is proud to be open to all students, without requiring an application, dues, past experience, or minimum time commitment.

1) Scan here to join our Slack to recieve updates.

2) Follow us on Instagram! @stanford_flight_club

3) Visit our website: flightclub.sites.stanford.edu

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Design Build Fly (DBF)

Design Build Fly (DBF) About the competition: The Design/Build/Fly competition is an annual University Aerodesign competition that tasks students with designing, building and flying a remote control (RC) plane to a set of competition guidelines that vary each year. The goal of our team, and the competition, is to give every student a hands-on platform to learn the process of aircraft design and manufacturing. Over 100 university teams from across the world compete at the ‘Fly-off’ competition across 3 days every April. This year, the Fly-off is being held in Tucson, AZ from April 10-13. It is the foremost University-level aircraft design competition and the majority of industry engineers have participated in previous editions of the competition.

What you’ll learn: As you may imagine, there are many different ways that you can contribute to our 2024/2025 aircraft! We are split into 6 sub-teams: Aerodynamics, Mechanical Design, Strategy & Optimization, Propulsion & Avionics, Business Development, and the UAV team. Each team plays a critical role in getting our plane in the air and we encourage you to work with as many as you find interest in. We aim to teach you the process of aircraft design, configuration, manufacturing and flying from the ground up. We welcome both those experienced in aircraft design and DBF, as well as those that are new to it all as well!

History: The Stanford DBF team has a rich history of competing in multiple editions of the Design/Build/Fly competition. After a brief pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve relaunched with renewed energy and passion. We ranked 21 out of over 100 teams in previous years, and we aim to progress higher with your help! As a young, dynamic team with fresh competition experience, we’re excited to welcome you aboard for the upcoming season as we strive for gold!

Solar Airplane Project

What you'll learn: The Solar Airplane Project provides students hands-on experience building a solar-powered plane and practicing skills often used in aerospace and related industries. You'll have the opportunity to learn carbon fiber layup, resin infusion techniques, solar encapsulation, CADing, 3D printing, laser cutting, and much more!

Solar Airplane Project

About the project: The need for sustainable travel is greater than ever! Will you help us build a solar-powered airplane and pave the way to a greener future in aviation?

Our final plane will have a wingspan of over 5 meters and fly autonomously in the Mojave desert for DAYS without landing. Achieving this ambitious goal will require motivated students to design, prototype, and test planes at multiple stages of the engineering process.

Aviation

Aviation

Do you dream of touching the clouds?

Stanford Flight Club seeks to promote general aviation interest within the Stanford community. Receive mentorship and guidance from our experienced pilots or connect with enthusiastic students just starting out in their private pilot license journey. Join us in discovery flights, fly-ins, airshows, museum visits, and more!

Skyrunner

Tornadrone In the Tornadrone Project, we are creating a high-speed drone capable of entering, following, and recording data within a tornado—an unprecedented achievement.

Our drone will ideally reach at least 120 mph and include a live telemetry downlink in case it is lost in the storm. Collaborating with a tornado researcher from OSU, we plan to test the drone in an F0 or F1 tornado by spring quarter 2025. By capturing critical data on humidity, wind speed, and temperature from the tornado's center, Tornadrone will help validate tornado formation models and improve prediction capabilities. This advancement addresses the current limitations of meteorological tools like balloons and Doppler radars, helping scientists understand and predict tornadoes with greater accuracy.

Drone Projects

As delivery drones become more integrated into our day-to-day lives, it is ever more important for students to craft their own! SkyRunners is a collaboration between Flight Club and Robotics Club focused on inviting students into the world of delivery drones by crafting our custom VTOL drone with a fixed wing and a vertical take-off. With these delivery drones, we aim to create a service that can fully autonomously transport food across campus.

Fly Days

Fly Days

About Fly Days: Fly Days are a great way to de-stress after a busy week, soak up some Saturday sun, socialize with other students, and hone your skills as a model aircraft pilot! Fly Days are also an opportunity for project teams and experimental designers to join and test their aircrafts, occasionally accompanied by a spectacular crash.

All students, regardless of affiliation with Flight Club, are welcome to attend Fly Days and learn to fly with the assistance of experienced UAV pilots.

Fly days are held every other week on Saturdays at 10:00 AM and are posted on the Slack and calendar on the Flight Club website. We fly at Lake Lagunita or Coyote Hill, depending on the weather. We hope to see you there!

Project Grants Project grants support members pursuing interests not already covered by one of Flight Club’s projects. In the past these have included buying drones, building an RC plane kits, and designing a massive cardboard airplane. Grants can be applied for any time, and are awarded year round. Projects can be for individuals or groups of any size, and members not already in Flight Club are welcome to join on the project.

Thanks for reading!

Project Grants

To apply, fill out a form with a few questions on the project. The leadership team will review and award research grants to pursue the project. There are no limits on the amount of funding students can request or what one can purchase, so long as it’s in support of Flight Club’s goal of supporting aerospace and aviation.

PULL UP!

@stanford_flight_club

flightclub.sites.stanford.edu