The senior capstone project is one of the most intensive, memorable, and eye-opening experiences in the undergraduate program.

BSAAE students complete a rigorous design and build project focusing specifically on the skills and knowledge unique to the field of aerospace engineering. All projects provide students with focused industry mentoring, interdisciplinary teamwork, written and oral communication skills, engagement with regulatory requirements, fiscal and procurement management, social and ethical considerations, and market awareness.

Capstone Options

For A&A students, three options are available for capstone design: 

• Large team in aeronautics, sponsored by the A&A Department, that creates a new scale-model fixed wing aircraft each year based on a current design topic of direct relevance to industry or military needs.
• Large team in astronautics, sponsored by the A&A Department, that focuses on development and testing of a launch system and payload such as a cubesat.
• Small team projects allowing students to directly engage with industry on current and emergent engineering challenges, which may be industry-sponsored through the College of Engineering, faculty-sponsored, or self-organized (see your adviser if you would like to submit an application to create a Capstone Project).

The large team projects must accommodate both domestic and international students, so the selected topics must not involve any constraints related to export controlled material. Requirements for US citizenship and/or NDA constraints are possible for the small team projects.

When selecting a Capstone Project, students should weigh their research and subject interests, relevant skills to contribute, career goals and more.

Industry Sponsored Capstone Program

The UW College of Engineering (COE) Industry Sponsored Capstone Program is a college-wide effort that is designed to provide effective project-based and team-based education of undergraduate students to meet the needs of engineering, science and industry.  

To learn about sponsoring an Aeronautics & Astronautics Capstone project, visit the COE Industry Capstone Program.

2019-2020 A&A Senior Capstone Projects

Industry-sponsored

Airbus: Battery swapping system for electric aircraft

Applewhite Aero: Baton, a precision delivery system

Boeing: 50- and 76-seat regional aircraft family

TLG Aerospace: Design for robust laminar flow on high lift airfoils

Vulcan: Improved conservation UAV.

Faculty and student-led

UW AA Aircraft Design: The NASA / Lockheed Martin X59 quiet supersonic flight demonstrator.

Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion: Liquid bipropellant rocket.

A&A CubeSat Team: Flight hardware that will fly in space.

Raven: Rocket analog vehicle for experiments in guidance, navigation, and control.

Completed Projects

2018-2019

Visit the College of Engineering website for summaries of the 2018-2019 industry capstone projects.

In addition, faculty and student-led projects included aircraft design, cubesats, origami structures, and space systems design.

2017-2018

Visit the College of Engineering website for summaries of the 2017-2018 industry capstone projects.