The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics offers a variety of student competitions. Students often respond
to these challenges either in the course of completing a design class, or outside classroom hours (as is usually the case
for the Design/Build/Fly competition).
More information may be found on the AIAA
website.
Although the Boeing 787 is three years behind its original development schedule, it promises to be both the most radical, and successful, airplane
ever developed by Boeing. A rule of thumb is a that a commercial airplane deisgn should incorporate only one new technology,
because a company does not possess the resources to handle more than one. The 787 possesses several such as nearly all composite
structure, and all-electric (almost) secondary power systems,