Today’s the day! Months of preparation, hours of teamwork, pushing their imagination to the limit and prototyping in Airbus labs… for 7 student teams, today is the day that their ideas are finally ready to fly.

From the beginning, Airbus has set about to make new ideas fly. Which is why Fly Your Ideas, run in partnership with UNESCO, is so important to all the Airbus employees who give back by mentoring, assessing and providing expertise to future talent during the competition.

The competition, now in its 11th year, is a global initiative that gives students one objective: to innovate for the future of aerospace. For the teams who take part, it is a highlight in their young careers and often represents a turning point for them.

“They are passionate about what they do, they are dedicated, they are engaged, they are excited to be part of it,” says Marc Fontaine, Airbus’ Digital Transformation Officer and current Patron of Fly Your Ideas.

Charles Champion, former Airbus Executive Vice president Engineering and Patron of Fly Your Ideas, describes how the competition aims to “stimulate and better equip a growing and more diverse community of talent” so that they can “rise to the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow’s world”.

Over 22,000 students from around the world have entered the competition since it started in 2008, submitting nearly 2,000 ideas. The opportunity is to put their thinking to the test against the challenges we face today, coming up with a whole new vision of the industry for the future.

Meet this year’s finalists and watch their excitement when they found out they were selected to go head-to-head today in Toulouse, competing for this year’s crown.

“And the winner is”… From 15:00 pm today you can follow the live final here and find out who this year’s winners will be.

Over the last decade, Fly Your Ideas participants have been able to put skills and experience gained during the competition to use, whether back in the classroom, setting up their own companies, working for start-ups or securing roles across Airbus.