Drones that deliver aid.
We're students at the University of Twente. Every year a new team builds an autonomous aircraft that can fly aid to places a truck can't reach.
We build it ourselves.
The skin is 3D printed, and this year we made our own carbon tubes as well, from prepreg cured at 100°C. Then we wire it up and fly it.
It hovers on three motors and cruises on its wing.
It takes off like a multicopter. Then the two front motors tilt forward, the CH10 wing takes the weight and the rear motor switches off. Tilting the front motors is also how it turns in a hover, so it doesn't need a fourth.
It drops 3 litres of water by itself.
A Pixhawk running ArduPilot flies the route. Over the target a servo opens the tank, and the water is out in under three and a half seconds.
Zephyros is aircraft number eight.
There's been one every season since 2019, each built by a different team. Zephyros brought home the Rebuild Award from the 2026 UAS Challenge.
Every year a new group of students builds an aircraft and takes it to a competition in the UK.
The competition is the IMechE UAS Challenge. Our aircraft are designed for humanitarian aid missions, and we build them in our own workshop at the University of Twente.
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8
aircraft built
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7
competition awards
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26
students
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6
departments
Every aircraft we've built
Each team picks up where the last one stopped, including whatever went wrong.
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Toothless
The founding team built Toothless, an octa-plane VTOL, and entered the UAS Challenge for the first time.
- < 10 kg
- 2.0 m
2019 Debut Read the record -
VAU2
The second team worked on several aircraft projects and earned Drone Team Twente's first Innovation Award.
- < 7 kg
- 1.90 m
2020 Innovation Award Read the record -
Phoenix
The Phoenix team continued work on the hybrid VTOL layout during a largely remote competition year.
- 7 kg
- 2.0 m
2021 Most Promising Team Read the record -
Thunderbird
Thirteen students built Thunderbird, and the team also did STEM outreach that year.
- 10 kg (incl. payload)
- 1.90 m
- 20+ km Range
2022 Media & Engagement Award Read the record -
Nekbeth
The team took Nekbeth, a fast and largely 3D-printed VTOL aircraft, to the UAS Challenge.
2023 Competed Read the record -
Freebird
The team cut the motor count to four and used tilting front rotors for hover, transition, and forward flight.
- 9.5 kg
- 3.0 m
- 45 minutes
2024 Most Promising Team Read the record -
Nightingale
Nightingale completed the team's first fully autonomous competition mission and returned with two awards.
- < 10 kg
- 3.2 m
2025 Best Design · Best Media & Engagement Read the record -
Zephyros
Zephyros is a fixed-wing VTOL tricopter, and the first of our aircraft with carbon tubes we made ourselves.
- < 10 kg
- 2.8 m
- 15+ min
2026 Rebuild Award Read the record
Results, season by season
At the IMechE UAS Challenge the flight is only part of the score. Judges also look at the design, safety, autonomy and outreach, so some of our awards were won on the ground.
Official results-
2026 Zephyros Rebuild Award
Zephyros won the Rebuild Award and scored 356 points in total.
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2025 Nightingale Best Design · Best Media & Engagement
Nightingale won Best Design and Best Media & Engagement, placed first in documentation, and finished eighth overall. It also completed our first fully autonomous competition flight and earned the highest VTOL score of the 2025 challenge.
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2024 Freebird Most Promising Team
Freebird received the Most Promising Award for its tilting front rotors. The design reduced the motor count from five to four while retaining vertical take-off and landing.
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2023 Nekbeth Competed
Nekbeth brought a largely 3D-printed VTOL airframe and a 120 km/h design cruise speed to the 2023 challenge.
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2022 Thunderbird Media & Engagement Award
Thunderbird won the Media & Engagement Award for the team's work with schools and local students, and finished 17th out of 32 teams overall.
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2021 Phoenix Most Promising Team
Phoenix received the Most Promising Team Award for its hybrid VTOL configuration, which combined fixed-wing flight with vertical take-off and landing.
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2020 VAU2 Innovation Award
VAU2 earned the team's first competition prize: first in Innovation. It also placed third in Media, seventh in Business Proposition, and eighth in Design out of 38 teams.
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2019 Toothless Debut
Our first competition aircraft placed third in Design, sixth in Media, tenth in Business Proposition, and 19th out of 32 teams overall.
This year's team
26 students this season, in 6 departments. Pick one to see who's in it.
Plans the season and handles the budget, sponsors, media and the competition entry.
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Miguel Bofil Grandes Team Manager · Full-Time -
Walid Slimani Technical Manager · Full-Time -
Furkan Canbolat Finance Manager · Part-Time -
Brandon Dcruz Marketing Manager · Part-Time -
Karl Kroski Chief External Affairs · Part-Time
Designs and builds the structure, including the carbon tubes we now make ourselves.
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Daniel Luis Mederos Chief Airframe · Full-Time -
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George Birca Engineer · Part-Time -
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Emiel Keizers Engineer · 30 EC Minor -
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Ioannis Soulimiotis Engineer · Part-Time -
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Anis Spiridon Engineer · Part-Time -
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Daniel Simon Engineer · 30 EC Minor
Does the wiring, the flight controller setup and the software around it.
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Xavier Taboada Chief Electronics · Full-Time -
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Justin Nguyen Engineer · 30 EC Minor -
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Andre Cuadras Diaz Engineer · 15 EC Minor -
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Elze Mazuronyte Engineer · 15 EC Minor -
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Arlen T Croak Chief Software · Part-Time -
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Yousef Hannouneh Engineer · 30 EC Minor
Picks the airfoils and sizes the wing, the tail and the motors.
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George-Razvan Chirila Chief Aerodynamics -
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Wisang Umam Engineer · 30 EC Minor -
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Nagi Anezaki Engineer · 15 EC Minor -
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Alejandro Solis Mercado Engineer -
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Alexander Radoslavov Rachev Engineer · 15 EC Minor -
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Arthur Tyron Engineer · Part-Time
Runs Dronobox, our build-a-drone workshops for students.
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Victor Andrei Chief Dronobox · Full-Time -
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Illia Mirzaali Engineer · Part-Time - Andrii Yevmenchuck Engineer · Part-Time
Turns the CAD into real parts and makes sure they fit together.
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Victor Andrei Manufacturing · Part-Time
Sponsor the next aircraft
We build a new aircraft every year, and we can't do it without sponsors. Money helps a lot, but so do materials, machine time and engineers who'll answer our questions.
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Funding
Parts, tooling, the trip to the UK and the competition entry.
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Materials and parts
Carbon, filament, electronics and motors that end up in the aircraft.
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Facilities
Workshop time, machines and somewhere to test and fly.
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Expertise
Advice from engineers who've solved the same problems before.
Our partners
Thank you to the companies and institutes that support us.
- Zephyros earns the Rebuild Award Zephyros finished the 2026 UAS Challenge with 356 points and the Rebuild Award.
- Zephyros revealed First public look at Zephyros, our fixed-wing VTOL tricopter with two tilting front motors.
- Nightingale completes the mission Nightingale flew our first complete autonomous competition mission, finished eighth, and won two awards.