VTOL CWRU, the university's student-led design team dedicated to advancing Vertical Takeoff & Landing (VTOL) technology through unmanned aircraft, recently competed in the 2025 Design-Build-Vertical Flight Competition. The team's mission was to build an aircraft for wildfire response and the two flight scenarios in the competition required precise autonomous waypoint tracking, high-altitude targeted payload dropping, rapid vertical takeoff and landing capability. Thanks to an outstanding performance from the team pilot, Dany Sainz-Gootenberg, the drone won the competition fly-off, earning VTOL CWRU first place overall.
Caleb Brady, Joshua Paine, Lincoln Reiter, Mitchell Schultz and Gavin Rauh traveled to the competition. Additional team members integral to the team's success include Nathaniel Hahn, Joseph Ferrari, Isabella Zimmer and Simon Fox, with guidance from Dr. Majid Rashidi.
VTOL CWRU prioritizes members' hands-on experience, including learning to fly drones and developing technical skills,and competes by designing and manufacturing a custom, purpose-built VTOL drone.