Awards
Best Paper Award
Recognizing outstanding research contributions to the aircraft design discipline at AIAA conferences.
About the Award
The AIAA Aircraft Design TC Best Paper Award is presented annually to recognize an exceptional published paper that makes a significant contribution to the field of aircraft design. Recipients are selected by the TC Awards Committee based on technical merit, originality, and impact.
🏆
Nominate a Paper
TC members may nominate papers from the current year's conference proceedings. Contact the Awards Committee Chair for nomination procedures.
Contact Awards CommitteeAward Winners
| Year | Paper Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Comparative Analysis on Aircraft Direct Operating Cost Models E. Espinosa-Juarez; C. Jouannet; K. Amadori; A. S. Mata Linkoping University; SANMATC Consulting | |
| 2025 | Incorporation of Producibility Considerations into an Aircraft Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Process Michael Buonanno; Thomas Kwasniak; Nathan Quay; Amy Ross; Daniel Sagan; Christopher Lupp; Brench Boden Lockheed Martin; AFRL | |
| 2024 | Design and Assessment of Long Range Aircraft Concepts with Focus on Fossil Kerosene, Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Liquid Hydrogen as Energy Carriers Tim Burschyk; Michael Iwanizki; Jannik Häßy; Sebastian Woehler German Aerospace Center (DLR) | |
| 2023 | Comparison of Future Aviation Fuels to Minimize the Climate Impact of Commercial Aircraft Pieter-Jan Proesmans; Roelof Vos Delft University of Technology | |
| 2022 | Aerodynamic Performance Benefits of Over-the-Wing Distributed Propulsion for Hybrid-Electric Transport Aircraft Reynard de Vries; Roelof Vos Elysian Aircraft; Delft University of Technology | |
| 2021 | A Generalized Energy-Based Vehicle Sizing and Performance Analysis Methodology Imon Chakraborty; Aashutosh Aman Mishra Auburn University | |
| 2020 | Development of an Efficient Mach=0.80 Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Aircraft Michael Beyar; Sally A. Viken; Eric D. Dickey; Krishna Hoffman; Neal A. Harrison; Gregory M. Gatlin Boeing; NASA Langley Research Center | |
| 2019 | HALE Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Part I: Solar-Powered Single and Multiple-Boom Aircraft Dorian F. Colas; Nicholas H. Roberts; Vishvas S. Suryakumar Facebook, Inc. | |
| 2018 | Conceptual Design and Evaluation of Blended-Wing Body Aircraft Malcom Brown; Roelof Vos Delft University of Technology | |
| 2017 | Design Studies of Thin-Haul Commuter Aircraft with Distributed Electric Propulsion Gregor Veble Mikic; Alex M. Stoll Joby Aviation | |
| 2016 | Conceptual Design of a Single-Aisle Turboelectric Commercial Transport with Fuselage Boundary Layer Ingestion Jason R. Welstead; James L. Felder NASA Langley Research Center; NASA Glenn Research Center | |
| 2015 | A Requirements-driven Methodology for Integrating Subsystem Architecture Sizing and Analysis into the Conceptual Aircraft Design Phase Imon Chakraborty; David R. Trawick; Dimitri N. Mavris; Matthias Emeneth; Alexander Schneegans Georgia Institute of Technology; PACE America Inc. |