American Institute of
Aeronautics
&
Astronautics
Rice University Chapter
About Us
Rice’s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has two types of events––chapter meetings, and our competition team, Rice Flight. Chapter events expose Rice students to opportunities in aviation such as educational field trips, networking events, and speaker series. The Rice Flight RC Plane team designs, manufactures, tests, and competes with RC planes, providing valuable educational and networking experiences. As part of the wider national AIAA organization, AIAA Rice is committed to helping students pursue careers in aviation and aerospace, and to being an active chapter by attending national meetings, conferences, and competitions.
The chapter was founded by Nancy Lindsey in the summer of 2022. Expanding rapidly since its founding last year, the chapter has grown to over 35 active members representing a diverse set of majors, including mechanical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, materials science, physics, and math.
A group of AIAA members at the Wings Above Houston Airshow in October 2022
The DBF team with OWLer in April 2023
A wing of the Primary Aircraft under construction in November 2023
In 2024-2025, Rice Flight is looking to improve on our performance from last year, competing in both the Regular and Advanced classes of the 2025 SAE Aero Design Competition. For the Regular class, we are building a heavy-lift aircraft, Condor, with a 15-foot wingspan and 750 watt power limiter. For the Advanced class, we are creating a 3.5 pound aircraft, Magpie, capable of both horizontal and vertical take-off and landing to precisely deliver and retrieve payloads.
In April of 2023, the chapter attended its first competition––AIAA Design, Build, Fly––with its first aircraft, EA-23R OWLer. While OWLer faced stability challenges in the prevailing wind conditions, the team took away valuable lessons to ensure successful flights in the future.
For the 2023-2024 academic year Rice Flight participated in the SAE Aero Advanced 2024 competition. Rice Flight was one of only 3 teams to successfully take off, deploy our autonomous glider, and land in competition, out of 17 total teams in the advanced category. Our ‘Primary Aircraft’, Albatross, has a 9’8” wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of 31 pounds, including 5 pounds of water payload. After designing and manufacturing from May 2023-February 2024, we were able to successfully fly Albatross at several test flights before the competition in March, and again after competition with additional sensors to help with future research. In April, we presented at Rice’s 2024 Engineering Design Showcase, and won the $500 award for ‘Best Aerospace or Transportation Technology’.
The Primary Aircraft with three PADAs (1lb-autonomous gliders) at SAE Aero Design East in March 2024