Student drone racing tournament held in Kyiv: how it went

The final of Kyiv Drone Racing, a student UAV piloting tournament, took place in a hangar at the National Aviation University “Kyiv Aviation Institute”. More than 30 teams took part in the competition. The hosts — team KAI DRC-1 — took first place, completing a course with over 10 obstacles in a record 36.41 seconds.

All participants competed on equal footing, piloting Ukrainian-made SHRIKE drones by SkyFall. The competition’s technical regulations were developed by instructors from the SkyFall Academy — a Ministry of Defence-certified training centre that has trained over 20,000 military drone pilots, technicians and instructors on VAMPIRE, SHRIKE and P1-SUN UAVs. Judges included instructors and experienced military drone operators, among them an FPV pilot with the callsign “Justin” from the SBS “RAROG” brigade.

Top three teams:

– KAI DRC-1 (Kyiv Aviation Institute) — 0:36.41
– PROFPV (Kyiv Polytechnic Lyceum, KPI) — 0:41.06
– KAI DRC-4 (Kyiv Aviation Institute) — 0:43.96

All winners received prizes to help improve their piloting skills. The top three teams also received certificates for an advanced training course on P1-SUN FPV interceptor drones at the SkyFall Academy. In addition, each team was given a SHRIKE drone to continue training at their institutions.

The competition was initiated by the Kyiv Aviation Institute in partnership with defence tech company SkyFall and LAB418, with support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

KAI rector Kseniia Semenova said the university’s strategic goal is to develop into a research institution in which students engage with technology and defence tech from their first year. “That is why, together with SkyFall, we are preparing to launch a joint radio frequency technology lab,” she said. “It will be a space where students can study frequencies and signals using modern oscilloscopes and develop their own projects.”

A SkyFall representative noted that around 100 participants took part in the tournament, highlighting the strong future of Ukraine’s drone industry. According to him, such competitions help shape a new generation of Ukrainian engineers and UAV operators who will play a key role in the country’s security and economy.