University students in the Republic of Korea are being invited to build urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft as part of a competition with a total prize of 66 million won and the opportunity to realise operational concepts.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)) and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KTSA) are recruiting participants for the 2026 National University Student UAM Olympiad from April 10 to May 31.
The competition encompasses the entire field of UAM, from aircraft design to infrastructure and regulations. The categories are aircraft creation, spatial information, radio wave environment, vertiports, social acceptability, regulatory innovation and airport utilisation.
The aircraft creation category evaluates design, fabrication and flight capabilities considering the mission performance of urban airframes, while the vertiport category verifies the entire process, from site selection to design and operation.
There will also be an evaluation including the construction of vertiport models, with plans to focus on assessing actual implementation capabilities beyond theory.
Support will be provided to participating teams in the aircraft creation and vertiport categories, creating an environment where university students can realise their ideas.
The Olympiad is being organised by KTSA, Korea Land and Geospatial Informatics Corporation, Korea Airports Corporation, Korea Transport Institute, Korea Radio Promotion Association, Korea Legislation Research Institute and Incheon International Airport Corporation. The initiative is sponsored by Gyeongbuk Provincial Government, Gimcheon City, POSCO and Verti.
The application period opened on April 10. Ten teams will be selected per category, and the final five teams will be chosen through the preliminary rounds. The finals are scheduled to be held at the Gimcheon Drone Certification Center in October. Winning teams will be awarded a certificate from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport along with their prize money.
Park Jun-hyung, Director General of the Mobility and Automobile Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said the Olympiad goes beyond a simple competition and serves as a platform of opportunity for university students to directly experience and develop actual UAM industry technologies. “We plan to actively support the development of results, particularly in core fields such as aircraft creation, so that they can lead to future industrial growth.”
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Image: MOLIT