A student-led club at secured $28,571 in funding from the NASA-sponsored GoAero competition. The threeyear challenge pushes teams across industry and academia to build an autonomous Emergency Response Flyer — an easy-to-operate rescue aircraft that can reach remote and dangerous places. After the win, the Vertical Flight Systems Purdue team built a 40% scale prototype of their winning design in Fall 2025, testing its payload and autonomy capabilities at Purdue facilities.

Thiago Guimaraes and Ran Dai, both associate professors in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, are faculty advisors for the project.

Purdue students give a presentation on their 40-percent-scale drone, which was built using prize money from the GoAero competition.

Valentino Cattaneo, electrical engineering student and president of VFS Purdue, says the funding will carry them through to build the full-scale vehicle. The team expects to participate in the Fly-Off qualifying period from June-December 2026 before advancing to the final fly-off in Feb. 2027, at NASA Ames.

Purdue students give a presentation on their 40-percent-scale drone, built using prize funding from the GoAero competition