The Belmont Aerospace Student Society (BASS) finished out their 2026 competition season on May 30 after clinching the top prize at the regional Aerospace Robotics Competition earlier last month.
Though BASS was not able to defend the national title it won last year due to technical difficulties, coach Charles Coldwell said the team is looking forward to what’s ahead in the fall. Even without a trophy, Coldwell said the students walked away from the national competition with new skills after competing with some of the best drone teams from across the country.
“It’s good to see a competition that can be as friendly and as meaningful as this one is,” Coldwell said.
In the months leading up to the competitions, BASS designed, built, and programmed drones capable of completing complex aerial missions. The students competed in head-to-head flying missions against other schools, eventually eking out a regional championship victory over Brockton on May 9, which won the regional level last year.
“[It’s been] four years being in this competition, and also just over this year seeing the new members learn about the competition in freshman year, that’s been a nice experience,” said senior Perry Cai.
This year’s competitions didn’t come without challenges. A work-to-rule job action implemented in January meant BASS could no longer meet in a high school classroom. Instead, the club began to meet at night at the house of Coldwell, the father of BASS members Harry and Miranda Coldwell. With some members unable to meet outside of school and a harsh winter that complicated outdoor practice, BASS felt the pressure leading up to the regional competition.
Building a Future for Aerospace Competition in Belmont
BASS was first founded in 2022 as a chapter of the National Association of Rocketry. The club assembled a drone team a year later, with members calling their rookie season full of surprises — and success.
“The really charming thing about this particular competition is that there are rules and there are limitations, but it’s kind of wide open, and the kids are free to figure out their mechanism and discover all the capabilities and flight controllers and transmitters and all the other bits and pieces that make these drones go,” said Coldwell, who first learned about the competition at his job at the MIT Lincoln Lab. “It’s not a canned experience at all. It’s sort of wonderful that way.”
When it first started, BASS primarily flew radio-controlled airplanes and launched model rockets. Most of the students didn’t have any experience with the types of drones that are designed and built for competition, Coldwell said. With lots of practice, however, Belmont clinched second place at the regional competition in its rookie year in 2023.
In the years that followed, BASS has continued to meet weekly, aiming to recruit more younger students to continue the club’s competitive streak.
Today, the club is primarily made up of seniors. Without a meeting space due to the work-to-rule action, members gathered at Coldwell’s house on Tuesday evenings. According to Harry Coldwell, the club has seen a decline in membership from an already small base.
“I think it just doesn’t work for a lot of people, and I’m not surprised it doesn’t,” he said. Though he admitted he doesn’t “have any skin in the game” as a graduating senior, Harry Coldwell’s sister, Miranda Coldwell, will be one of the few remaining members in the fall. With both his sister and father vying to continue the club’s legacy of success, Harry Coldwell said the job action was an unexpected curve.
“It just made things difficult, and really it’s kind of in a lot of ways jeopardizing the club in terms of, ‘How does this look next year?’” Harry Coldwell said.
A Family of Flyers
Charles, Harry, and Miranda Coldwell said that while the meetings at their house proved to be difficult for flying, it did mean an advantage for the family, which has become a core part of BASS.
Miranda Coldwell, a freshman, had heard about BASS from her father and brother’s excited conversations over the years. At the regional competition, she piloted one of Belmont’s drones, with Harry as her co-pilot.
“It was very fun and interesting to finally be able to see what the competition is like when you’re actually competing in it and what flying the drone itself is like, because this was my first year flying. I must say, it was a lot less easy than I thought it would be,” Miranda Coldwell said. She also admitted that she partially joined the club as a chance to annoy her older brother.
“Number two is just because it looked like fun,” she laughed.
The drone was stored at the Coldwells’ to allow for easy practice as the competition drew closer. Determined to go out on a winning note his senior year, Harry Coldwell said having another pilot in the same house was an unexpected advantage.
“It kind of led us to be pretty involved in the competition in general,” he said.
When she indicated she was interested in aerospace drones, Miranda Coldwell said her father encouraged her to practice flying using online simulators before she even entered high school. There’s a bit of pressure to continue the family legacy, but she added that spending time with her brother has been a pleasant bonus.
“It’s helped us have common ground for conversation a lot, because we’re both teenagers, so we don’t really meet at the same level in most of our conversations, so it’s helped us have a common ground for hanging out,” she said.
