In 2019, the Frenship Engineering team, Iron Tigers 5866, started this drone competition as part of their outreach program. After months of planning, they held the first competition in January of 2021. The Frenship Engineering Design and Problem Solving class design the competition field as well as construction of the field.  The Robotics Team then holds, runs and plans the competition each year. 

This year the competition was especially challenging as the theme was AirBattle’s “Mission Impossible.” Pilots had to navigate through the challenging course in manual flight mode. Halfway through they had to pick up a payload onto the drone and navigate the remaining course in manual flight.  Once they reached the finish line, they deployed a pre-coded program that would fly the drone back to start with the payload autonomously. Teams are judges on completion of course and run time. 

This was the 2nd annual competition that has been endowed by “Evelyn Davies” through the Texas Tech University Whitacre College of Engineering to promote STEM education in elementary and middle school throughout the Panhandle and West Texas Area.  

This year three Frenship campuses took home awards from the competition.  

Westwind Elementary: Place 3rd overall and 1st design award 

Willow Bend Elementary: 2nd place design award 

Frenship Heritage: 2nd place design award 

Frenship High School Robotics Coach, James Holloway, facilitates the competition while allowing his students to run the show on contest day to gain the important skills of organizing, operating and executing competitions.  Holloway’s goal, as well as his team’s goal, is to increase STEM throughout the district and understand the importance of bridging the gap between lower grades and high school robotics. 

Holloway stated that the weekend competition went well. Teams from all over the area came together to race their drones and share a love of robotics.  

“All students from the high school down had a great time,” said Holloway. “I was very proud of the students how they conducted themselves throughout the day and the decisions they had to make in order to make the competition successful.”