Airbus - Fly Your Ideas

Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 has now concluded – congratulations to our winners, Team DAELead. Be sure to follow us on Facebook to be the first to know about the future editions and to get Airbus news.

2017 Highlights

Catch up on the action from the May 2017 Fly Your Ideas final, when 5 finalist teams from Hong Kong, Australia, Nigeria, France and the UK were invited to Airbus HQ in Toulouse. The student teams enjoyed an action-packed week of prototyping their ideas at our ProtoSpace facility, before presenting their ideas to a distinguished international Jury in an exciting live final.

Airbus Fly Your Ideas is a global competition, which challenges students worldwide to innovate for the future of aviation. Airbus launched Fly Your Ideas in 2008 with the aim of engaging with universities and students worldwide and from all backgrounds. The challenge received UNESCO patronage in 2012 with a renewed partnership in 2014 and 2016. The key goals of FYI are to stimulate innovative ideas for a more sustainable aviation industry and to identify opportunities for R&T development and interaction with academic research teams.

Fly Your Ideas is a unique opportunity for students worldwide to innovate with Airbus. With the competition, Airbus is inspiring students to be creative and develop their skills with a leading global company on real-life challenges. By investing in global talent Airbus will be able to continue to meet the challenges facing the aviation industry.

Since the competition was launched in 2008, over 20,000 students have registered to participate, from over 650 universities and 100 countries worldwide, with over 400 Airbus employees supporting the students and assessing entries.

Students were invited to propose ideas that respond to five key challenges the aviation industry faces in the 21st century.

Business Models

What else could be done with aircraft other than transportation?

Flight Operations

How can big data be used to improve efficiency of flight operations?

Passenger Experience

How can new processes or layouts ease passenger boarding and disembarking, whilst increasing capacity for luggage?

Design Engineering

How can artificial intelligence support aircraft design and/or manufacturing?

Manufacturing

How can manufacturing be disruptively improved to reduce waste and ensure the sustainability of resources?

The final stage of the 2017 competition took place at Airbus HQ in Toulouse, France. Five teams of students - whittled down from 356 entries in Round 1 – were invited to spend a week at Airbus’ in house innovation facility, ProtoSpace, to visualise, prototype and test their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment, before presenting them to a panel of academic and Airbus and aerospace experts.

Team DAELead from The University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong were selected by an expert team of judges as the winners of the Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition. Team DAELead beat fierce competition to win the €30,000 first prize with their effective design for a Private Stowage Compartment (PSC) underneath passenger’s feet. The runners up, team Aquarius from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in Australia won €15,000 for their radical concept which turns an A400M military aircraft into a tool to stop rapid wildfire.

Fly Your Ideas supporters had the opportunity to watch the action unfold in a first for the competition and for Airbus with the finalist presentations and Award Ceremony streamed LIVE on Facebook.

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2017 Highlights

Students were invited to propose ideas that respond to five key challenges the aviation industry faces in the 21st century.

Business Models

Flight Operations

Passenger Experience

Design Engineering

Manufacturing

News

Electricity: Powering the Future of Flight

From Garden Inspiration to Published Research, via Airbus Fly Your Ideas!

Celebrating youth all over the world

Airbus on Twitter

Stay in touch