Freebird was our 2024 entry and won the Most Promising Team Award. Its two front motors tilt between vertical and forward flight, which let the team drop the separate lift motor the previous layout needed.
What changed
- The front motors lift in a hover and tilt forward for cruise.
- Without the dedicated lift motor it’s down to four motors, which saves weight and drag and still lets it take off vertically.
The award
The judges gave Freebird the Most Promising Team Award, for the tilting mechanism and for the work it took to make such a mechanically demanding layout fly.
Under the skin
Parts of the airframe carried over from the previous design, but a lot had to change around the tilting motors. The flight controller was tuned specifically for the transition from hover to forward flight and back.