The two winning teams, ASCLERA and AETHER, at the DLR Design Challenge 2025 award ceremony
From left: Team ASCLERA from RWTH Aachen – Felix Loic, Ty Pruschke, Justus Trost, Jan Weisgerber, Joshua Hector and Timon Helmich; Team AETHER from FH Aachen – Johannes Götzen, Raman Law, Carlos Santiago Valladares Quintana, Süheyl Savran, Daniel Götz, Laurin and Piechotta; and Markus Fischer, jury member and DLR Divisional Board Member for Aeronautics.
Image: 1/3, Credit:
DLR/Leon Jacobs
DLR Design Challenge 2025: FH Aachen's AETHER
AETHER is a versatile twin-engine turboprop rescue aircraft for transporting up to 19 patients. The cabin layout is highly flexible, featuring a modifiable design with quick-change rails and drop-pin seat rail adapters that allow for speedy reconfiguration to suit different mission requirements. A large rear door makes it possible to load patients quickly and efficiently, significantly reducing waiting times in emergency situations. Boasting a simple and reliable twin-engine propulsion system, AETHER flies on sustainable aviation fuel.
Image: 2/3, Credit:
FH Aachen/AETHER
DLR Design Challenge 2025: RWTH Aachen's ASCLERA
ASCLERA is a medical evacuation aircraft and air ambulance that can transport up to 15 patients over a distance of 2500 kilometres. Its design is based on a powerful twin-engine turboprop aircraft featuring modern landing flaps and flight control systems for smooth and safe operation, even on short, high-altitude runways. Its modular cabin can be quickly reconfigured, with an elliptical fuselage offering extra space. Double doors and a rail-based loading system allow for swift boarding and the flexible transportation of patients with different medical needs.
Image: 3/3, Credit:
RWTH Aachen/ASCLERA
For this year's DLR Design Challenge, students developed concepts for a rescue aircraft of the future.
The objective was to design an aircraft able to provide swift and safe medical care and transportation.
Two teams now have the opportunity to showcase their work at the German Aerospace Congress (DLRK), with the students also getting the chance to present their ideas at an international conference.
Focus: Aviation, fostering young talent, safety
The jury of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has awarded first place in the 9th DLR Design Challenge to the student teams AETHER, from FH Aachen, and ASCLERA, from RWTH Aachen. The closing event took place on 26 August 2025 at DLR's site in Braunschweig, where both winning teams presented their designs for an innovative emergency evacuation aircraft. Two other student groups withdrew over the course of this challenging competition.
Although helicopters and aeroplanes have long been used for medical evacuations, they are often limited in terms of their range, manoeuvrability and access to difficult environments. When it comes to remote regions, disaster areas and densely populated urban centres, advanced aircraft are needed to ensure rescuers can respond more quickly and flexibly. This was the starting point for the 2025 DLR Design Challenge, with the task for participants to design an innovative, efficient and reliable emergency evacuation aircraft.
"Current world events and extreme weather have shown how important it is to be able to provide quick and efficient help, even in areas that are difficult to access," explains Markus Fischer, Divisional Board Member for Aeronautics. "Through their commitment, the students in this competition have made a considerable contribution to what a safe emergency evacuation could look like and how it could save lives. The winners are all those who took on this challenging competition as a team. Together, they have achieved an impressive feat."
Core skills – expertise, creativity and team spirit
At the final event, both winning teams presented designs they had worked on for about four months. The students followed aircraft processes similar to real aircraft design: from the initial concept to detailed technical work and calculations, followed by a convincing presentation in front of expert judges. They gained valuable experience and combined their acquired knowledge with practical skills by working under realistic conditions and addressing current challenges facing the aviation industry. The task required not only technical expertise, but also creativity and teamwork.
Over the course of the project, the students invested several hundred hours in developing their concepts, gaining wide-ranging experience and building contacts with industry experts that could prove valuable in the future. The Design Challenge was organised by DLR's Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in collaboration with the DLR Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics.
Fast, efficient and safe emergency evacuation
This year's challenge was to design an efficient aircraft that could provide medical care as quickly as possible. The aircraft should be able to transport up to 19 people and cover a wide range of predefined scenarios – including medical care in flight and on the ground, taking off and landing on different surfaces, and performing a range of mission profiles. To complete their task, participants had to strike a balance between medical transport solutions and optimum aircraft performance. While doing so, they were required to integrate advanced aviation technologies, intelligent medical systems and optimised rescue procedures into their designs.
Now that DLR Design Challenge 2025 has come to an end, the two winning teams will present their concepts at the German Aerospace Congress (DLRK 2025) in Augsburg, Germany. The teams will also get the chance to showcase their designs at the EASN International Conference 2025 in Madrid, organised by the European Aeronautics Science Network (EASN).
The aircraft designs at a glance
FH Aachen – AETHER
AETHER is a versatile twin-engine turboprop rescue aircraft designed to transport up to 19 patients. Its cabin layout is highly flexible, featuring quick-change rails and drop-pin seat rail adapters that allow for rapid reconfiguration to suit different mission requirements. A large rear door makes it possible to load patients quickly, significantly reducing waiting times in emergencies. Boasting a simple and reliable twin-engine propulsion system, AETHER is powered by sustainable aviation fuel.
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ASCLERA is a medical evacuation aircraft and air ambulance that can transport up to 15 patients over a distance of 2500 kilometres. Its design is based on a powerful twin-engine turboprop aircraft featuring modern landing flaps and flight control systems for smooth and safe operation, even on short, high-altitude runways. The modular cabin can be quickly reconfigured, with an elliptical fuselage offering extra space. Double doors and a rail-based loading system allow for swift boarding and the flexible transportation of patients with different medical needs.
Your consent to the storage of data ('cookies') is required for the playback of this video on Quickchannel.com. You can view and change your current data storage settings at any time under privacy.
