Recovered System 04
Team Foxtrot was formed at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute in 2018. Every campaign since is recorded below, newest first.
Origin
A group of students from different disciplines joined hands in 2018 and decided to design and build UAVs — practical, fully autonomous aircraft capable of competing with the best in the world. The team has entered national and international competition every year since.
Milestones
2018
A group of students from different disciplines at GIKI joined hands and decided to design and build UAVs — practical, fully autonomous aircraft capable of competing with the best in the world.
2019
Project EURUS, built around a STOL system for precision landing, flew at the IMechE UAS Challenge in the United Kingdom and won the Highest New Entrant Award.
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2021
Project SWALLOW placed 5th in the world and 2nd in Asia, and took the Business Proposition Award for the first time.
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2022
Project BARQ — a tri-motor fixed-wing with retractable gear and a reverse-thrust mechanism — stood 1st in Asia and 6th globally at the live fly-offs.
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2023
The team moved from fixed-wing to multirotor airframes, entering two competitions in one year: SYLPH took 1st place at the IMechE UAS Challenge, while ALTAIR placed 6th globally in the team's first AUVSI SUAS campaign in the United States.
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2024
Project CARDINAL took 1st place and the Safety & Airworthiness Award at the IMechE UAS Challenge, while SPECTRE placed 4th in mission ranking at AUVSI SUAS.
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2025
Project AUJ represented the team at TEKNOFEST Turkey 2025, placing 11th out of 131 participating teams.
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Campaign Records
Turkey
Project AUJ: a rotary-wing quadcopter developed for TEKNOFEST Turkey 2025. The design features an X-frame quadcopter with folding arms for portability, a modular payload system supporting servo-based drops and an electromagnet for retrieval, Jetson Orin Nano–based vision (YOLO) for marker detection, and CUAV V5+ autopilot integration for autonomous mission execution.
Aircraft · FTX-09Project AUJ
Pakistan
Project CARDINAL secured 1st place along with the Safety & Airworthiness Award. Designed for optimal aerodynamics, endurance, and mission performance, CARDINAL reflected the culmination of rigorous design, in-house fabrication, and cutting-edge autonomy.
Aircraft · FTX-08Project Cardinal
United States
Project SPECTRE flew through the mission challenges at the SUAS Competition 2024, placing 4th in mission ranking and 11th overall — the culmination of strategic thinking, technical development, and tireless devotion by the team.
Aircraft · FTX-07Project Spectre
Pakistan
Project SYLPH took 1st place along with the Outreach Award, recognising the team's STEM sessions across Pakistan alongside its engineering result.
Aircraft · FTX-06Project Sylph
United States
The team's first AUVSI SUAS campaign. Project ALTAIR, a hexacopter carrying six LiDAR sensors and gimbal-stabilised object detection, placed 6th globally.
Aircraft · FTX-05Project Altair
United Kingdom
In a spirited competition the team stood 1st in Asia and 6th in the world at the live fly-offs, and took the Business Proposition Award for the second year running.
Aircraft · FTX-04Project Barq
United Kingdom
The team finished 5th in the world and 2nd in Asia while securing the Business Proposition Award for the first time.
Aircraft · FTX-03Project Swallow
United Kingdom
Project STINGRAY, a fixed-wing airframe built for humanitarian aid missions, designed to disassemble for transport and reload its payload rapidly in the field.
Aircraft · FTX-02Project Stingray
United Kingdom
Team Foxtrot's first international campaign. Project EURUS, built around a STOL system for precision landing, won the Highest New Entrant Award.
Aircraft · FTX-01Project Eurus
The team has been invited onto national television for interviews by Express News and Neo News, and has had articles published by Metronome, Jaanlo, and Economy.pk.
Structure
Creates the CAD model of the UAV based on the challenge's requirements.
Oversees all onboard electronics, control systems, and flight automation.
Handles sensor data, software, and embedded systems development, including AI-based object detection.
Once design and electronics are confirmed, begins transforming the design into a reality.
Records all the technical work completed by the sub-teams for submission to the challenge.
Works to expand the team's reach and identify viable sponsors and partners.
Outreach
The team has arranged STEM sessions — physically and online — throughout Pakistan. Its objective is to spread engineering and UAV knowledge wherever possible, raising awareness of how UAVs can support Pakistan's economy through agricultural spraying and aid relief during floods and earthquakes.
