The Air Cargo Challenge is an aeronautical engineering student competition that is held in Europe every two years.
This competition was held for the first time in 2003 and it was founded by a group of Aerospace students in Lisbon. The competition is primarily directed to aeronautical and aerospace engineering students, similarly to the north-American Design/Build/Fly.
The main objective is to design and build a radio-controlled aircraft that is able to fly with the highest possible payload according with the rules established in the competition regulations, which vary in each edition. The team's score is not only given by the performance demonstrated in the flight competition part, but also by the technical quality of the project, through the evaluation of the design report and drawings.
The event's first edition (ACC'03) was organized by the APAE: Associação Portuguesa de Aeronáutica e Espaço (Portuguese Association of Aeronautics and Space), an aerospace group from Instituto Superior Técnico. From the ACC'07 onwards, the competition grew to an international level under the umbrella of EUROAVIA, the European Association of Aerospace Students, and the winning team got the possibility of organizing the next edition. The ACC of 2011 was held in the University of Stuttgart, August 2011, organized by the AKAModell Stuttgart together with the EUROAVIA Stuttgart. The Universidade da Beira Interior was the winner of this edition, thus it took place in Portugal'. Again, the Team from Stuttgart won this Edition, and got the organization responsibility. In 2017 the 2015 winner HUSZ organized the event in Zagreb. The competition took place in Stuttgart again on August 12–17, 2019. After a one-year delay due to the Covid pandemic, the competition was held in Munich in the summer of 2022. The 2022 winner ADDI organized the 2024 edition on 10–12 July in Aachen, Germany. Stuttgart organized for the fourth time in 2026 and after 4 editions and 9 years, the ACC leaves Germany for Udine, Italy in 2028.
Competition results
2003 – Organization: APAE, Lisbon
Place Team University Country/City1st UBI 2 University of Beira Interior Covilhã2nd Flamingo University of Minho Guimarães3rd Beluga University of Beira Interior Covilhã
2005 – Organization: APAE, Lisbon
Place Team University Country/City1st Ícaro Instituto Superior Técnico e University of Coimbra Lisbon/Coimbra2nd Fly By Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Porto3rd Pegasus University of Beira Interior Covilhã
2007 – Organization: Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon
Place Team University Country 1st PEGASUS II University of Beira Interior 2nd Akamodell Stuttgart University of Stuttgart 3rd Blei-Ente Euroavia Muenchen 4th Lead Barons Delft University of Technology 5th ESTG Cargo Polytechnic Institute of Leiria 6th Trencalos Polytechnic University of Catalonia 7th UBI2 - SkunkWorks University of Beira Interior 8th UoPatras ATLAS University of Patras 9th De vliegende Hollander Delft University of Technology 10th FLY@UMINHO'07 University of Minho
2009 – Organization: University of Beira Interior, Covilhã
Place Team University Country 1st Akamodell Stuttgart University of Stuttgart 2nd TU Heavy Technical University of Munich 3rd ESTG Cargo2 Polytechnic Institute of Leiria 4th Sonic Kids Politehnica University of Bucharest 5th Lusofly Portuguese Air Force Academy 6th UoP Atlas II Hellenic Air Force Academy 7th Anatolian Craft Middle East Technical University 8th What's up Yaw Hogeschool van Amsterdam 9th FLY@UMINHO'09 University of Minho 10th Trencalòs Polytechnic University of Catalonia 11th INFINITeam Politehnica University of Bucharest 12th Aeraces Instituto Superior Técnico 13th Ucari Middle East Technical University 14th Volo Ergo Sum University of Beira Interior 15th Pisa Cargo Project University of Pisa 16th Brutus University of Porto 17th Uasas 18th CAL Clube de Aeromodelismo de Lisboa 19th Equipa_0 Instituto Superior Técnico 20th Chicken Wings University of Belgrade 21st Céfiro University of León 22nd Aero Swansea 09 Swansea University
2011 – Organization: University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Place Team University Country 1st UBI - Portugal University of Beira Interior 2nd TU Eleven Technical University of Munich 3rd Tsinghua University Tsinghua University 4th Student Wings Politehnica University of Bucharest 5th Team K.U.Leuven KU Leuven 6th PASSAROLA Team Instituto Superior Técnico 7th Nymph Noir Middle East Technical University 8th Trencalòs Team Polytechnic University of Catalonia 9th Anatolian Craft - Aselsan Middle East Technical University 10th EUROAVIA Ntua National Technical University of Athens 11th Nymph Rouge Middle East Technical University 12th High Flyers Politehnica University of Bucharest 13th IPL Team Polytechnic Institute of Leiria 14th Air FEUP University of Porto 15th Gryphus Team University of Aveiro 16th UoPatras ATLAS III University of Patras 17th EUROAVIA Rzeszow University of Rzeszów 18th HUSZ Black Eagle University of Zagreb 19th SU Team Eryr Swansea University 20th Białystok MiSIE team University of Białystok 21st Luso SPAD Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa
2013 – Organization: University of Beira Interior, Covilhã
Place Team University Country 1st AKAModell Stuttgart e.V. University of Stuttgart 2nd Tsinghua University Tsinghua University 3rd Beihang Aeromodelling Team 1 Beihang University 4th HUSZ Vulture University of Zagreb 5th Beihang Aeromodelling Team 1 Beihang University 6th High Flyers Silesian University of Technology 7th EESC-USP Juliett University of São Paulo 8th PHOENIX Politehnica University of Bucharest 9th EUROAVIA Athens – Hermes 2 University of Athens 10th Podlasie Tigers Bialystok University of Technology 11th UoP ATLAS IIIB University of Patras 12th ANATOLIAN CRAFT Middle East Technical University 13th EUROAVIA Rzeszów University of Rzeszów 14th UoP ATLAS IV University of Patras 15th Trencalòs Team Polytechnic University of Catalonia 16th Team KU Leuven KU Leuven 17th IPLeiria AirCargo Polytechnic Institute of Leiria 18th LUSITÂNIA Team UBI, IST, UNL (unofficially) 19th HERCULES Instituto Superior Técnico 20th Gryphus II University of Aveiro 21st Angry Bird Cairo University
2015 – Organization: University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Place Team University Country 1st EUROAVIA Zagreb University of Zagreb 2nd Born TU Lift Technical University of Munich 3rd EUROLIFTER Rzeszów University of Technology 4th AeroUD-MET University of Udine 5th AERO@UBI University of Beira Interior 6th AIR Tsinghua University 7th PISA Air Cargo Team University of Pisa 8th ATLAS TEAM UPAT University of Patras 9th NPU INNOVATION Northwestern Polytechnical University 10th UPC Venturi Polytechnic University of Catalonia 11th Team KU Leuven KU Leuven 12th Olisipo Instituto Superior Técnico 13th Studencki Klub Modelarski Wojskowej Akademii Technicznej Military University of Technology in Warsaw 14th BUT Chicken Wings Brno University of Technology 15th High Flyers Silesian University of Technology 16th The Lifters Rzeszów University of Technology 17th TransylAVIA Technical University of Cluj-Napoca 18th Poznań Aero Design Poznań University of Technology 19th Trencalòs Team Polytechnic University of Catalonia 20th Podlasie Tigers Bialystok University of Technology 21st Owl Tamers Aero Design Team Middle East Technical University 22nd SKYLINE University of Belgrade 23rd PhoeniX University of Porto
2017 – Organization: University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Place Team University Country 1st AKAModell Stuttgart e.V. University of Stuttgart 2nd Fly Hard Technical University of Munich 3rd Born TU Lift Reloaded Technical University of Munich 4th AeroUD-MET University of Udine 5th AIR Tsinghua University 6th NPU INNOVATION Northwestern Polytechnical University 7th AKA Classics University of Stuttgart 8th JetStream Wrocław University of Science and Technology 9th Icarus Polito Politecnico di Torino 10th UPC Venturi Polytechnic University of Catalonia 11th The Lifters Rzeszow University of Technology 12th Aristotle Space & Aeronautics Team Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 13th Chicken Wings Brno University of Technology 14th Hermes Team University of Athens 15th Aerotéc - Lisbon Instituto Superior Técnico 16th ATLAS Team UPAT University of Patras 17th LKN Bialystok University of Technology 18th ATA Team Istanbul Technical University 19th Kovan Istanbul Technical University 20th AERO@UBI_PVG - Portugal University of Beira Interior 21st PHOENIX Team Politehnica University of Bucharest 22nd The Wingineers Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 23rd AERO@UBI_MARS University of Beira Interior 24nd Trencalòs Team Polytechnic University of Catalonia 25nd VALCAN PROJECT Universitat Politècnica de València 26nd Buzz Lightyear Zewail City of Science, Technology and Innovation 27nd TransylAVIA Technical University of Cluj-Napoca 28nd Flightmare Zewail City of Science, Technology and Innovation
2019 – Organization: University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Place Team University Country 1st Fly Harder (AkaModell München)Technical University of Munich 2nd... and the BeastUniversity of Udine 3rdThe Beauty ...University of Udine 4thTHU AIRTsinghua University 5thAERO@UBIUniversity of Beira Interior 6thICARUS PoliToPolitecnico di Torino 7thChicken WingsBrno University of Technology 8thLift UpUniversity of Padova 9thEUROAVIA RZESZOWRzeszow University of Technology 10thA.S.A.T.-AuroraAristotle University of Thessaloniki 11thACC - LisboaUniversity of Lisbon 12thNepheleAristotle University of Thessaloniki 13thJetstreamWrocław University of Science and Technology 14thHUSZ JaegerUniversity of Zagreb 15thKOVANIstanbul Technical University 16thTrencalòs TeamPolytechnic University of Catalonia 17thTeam Vexilium PisaUniversity of Pisa 18thAlbatross TampereTampere University 19thBEOAVIAUniversity of Belgrade 20thROTAIstanbul Technical University 21stNPU-InnovationNorthwestern Polytechnical University 22ndATAIstanbul Technical University 23rdTitan TeamPolitehnica University of Bucharest 24ndLocreum ProjectUniversity of Cádiz 25ndUPC VenturiPolytechnic University of Catalonia 26ndXtra2Polytechnic University of Valencia 27ndHERMESNational Technical University of Athens
2022 – Organization: AkaModell München e.V., Technical University of Munich, Munich The 2021 edition of the ACC was delayed to 2022 due to the Covid pandemic. It was organized by AkaModell München from Technical University of Munich. All information to the ACC2022 can be found on www.acc2022.de. The competition took place 5.7.2022-9.7.2022 in Munich. The regulations were released on August 6, 2020.
Place Team University Country 1st ADDIRWTH Aachen 2ndAeroUDUniversity of Udine 3rdAkaModell StuttgartUniversity of Stuttgart 4thXtra2 UPVPolytechnic University of Valencia 5thChicken Wings BUTBrno University of Technology 6thLiftUPUniversity of Padova 7thChicken Wings CTUCzech Technical University in Prague 8thJetStreamWrocław University of Science and Technology 9thASATAristotle University of Thessaloniki 10thOlissipoUniversity of Lisbon 11thU-FlyUniversidad Aeronáutica en Querétaro (UNAQ) 12thICARUS PoliToPolitecnico di Torino 13thAeroUBIUniversity of Beira Interior 14thHUSZ FalconsUniversity of Zagreb 15thBEOAVIAUniversity of Belgrade 16thLeanIngUniversity of Pisa 17thTophane AygökTophane Vocational and Technic High School 18thITU Sky-UAVIstanbul Technical University 19thTrencalòsPolytechnic University of Catalonia 20thAlbatrossTampere University 21stUVigo AerotechUniversity of Vigo, Ourense Campus 22ndWUTWarsaw University of Technology 23rdTHU AIRTsinghua University 24ndHAWingsHAW Hamburg 25ndHERMESNational Technical University of Athens 26ndLocreumUniversity of Cádiz
2024 – Organization: Aachen Drone Development Initiative, RWTH Aachen University