Florida drone schools battle for 2026 championship spots at Embry-Riddle

Forty Florida school teams will crowd Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s ICI Center on April 24, with 20 high school teams and 20 middle school teams battling for places in the 2026 Florida Championship in Daytona Beach. The top 40 teams in the state will earn invitations, turning one spring weekend into the decisive checkpoint in a season-long climb.

The format gives the event a wider edge than a single set of heats. Teams can qualify through simulator races, virtual races, live races and wildcard spots, with separate allocations for high school and middle school entries. That structure means the weekend will reward more than raw lap speed. It will test how well teams prepare across platforms, how quickly they adapt, and how consistently they can turn classroom engineering into race pace.

Drones in School says its teams design, fabricate, assemble and test the drones they fly using CAD, 3D printing and iterative design. That makes the Florida championship the visible finish line for months of work that begins with the annual Season Guide in August, moves into face-to-face racing in October and continues through monthly virtual races. Those virtual events also require teams to submit race results, marketing video, portfolio materials and display materials online, widening the competition beyond the track.

The April 24 event also carries its own awards race. Alongside the FPL Energy Award, the championship will feature a spirit award, and the winning spirit team will receive a $500 sponsorship from STEM2 Hub to help with travel to Houston or next season’s expenses. That extra layer matters in a program built to reward both performance and presentation, because the Florida series has always treated racing as part engineering contest, part team showcase.

Embry-Riddle has already become a central stage for that model. The university hosted the inaugural Florida State Championship on April 25, 2025, when 32 teams, 16 high school and 16 middle school squads, competed in head-to-head racing, capture-the-flag games and evaluations in engineering, marketing, portfolio and display. This year’s field is larger, the pathway is clearer and the stakes are higher, with the state title feeding directly into the spring National Championship Race and Florida’s best using Daytona Beach as the road to the next level.