Fly Your Ideas is a biennial competition which provides the unique opportunity for students to work together in diverse teams to stretch their imagination and tackle the most important challenges facing the aviation industry. It’s a chance for students to apply their classroom learning and research to real-world challenges to envision solutions for the sustainable aviation industry of the future.
Since 2012, the competition has been supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the granting of a patronage. This commitment was renewed in 2014 with the signing of a partnership between UNESCO and Airbus for the Fly Your Ideas competition.
Since Fly Your Ideas’ launch in 2008, more than 15,000 students have registered to participate, from over 600 universities in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Fly Your Ideas demonstrates Airbus’ commitment to the future of aviation. The competition provides a platform to engage and interact with young talent from around the globe. Students are encouraged to form teams that are as diverse as possible. They are offered to co-innovate with Airbus on real challenges and to develop valuable skills for their future careers. This includes learning teamwork, project management, as well as communications skills.
The competition involves three increasingly competitive rounds leading to a live final. Projects are assessed by Airbus experts and all teams get feedback as early as Round 1. The teams selected for Round 2 get significant input and guidance from Airbus mentors to develop their idea into a detailed project. Five teams are selected for Round 3, where students are asked to test, prototype or visualise their solutions. Finally, the teams present their projects to an expert jury at the final event, where the winning team wins a prize of €30,000 and the runners up €15,000.