(VAI/Dianne Bond Photo) The 2027 VAI Photo Contest Is Now Open! The deadline to enter your best snaps of vertical aviation aircraft is Dec. 4, 2026. Have you taken some great photos of vertical flight aircraft? Let us (and the whole world) see them by entering the 2027 VAI Photo Contest, which is now open for submissions. Submit your entries for the 15th year of the annual competition at photo.verticalavi.org by 11:59 pm eastern (UTC-5) on Fri., Dec. 4, 2026. Contest Categories The photo contest categories for 2027 are: • Vertical Flight Aircraft at Work • Vertical Flight Aircraft in the Military • People and Their Vertical Flight Aircraft • Wrench Turners • How We Serve. Contest Rules • The contest is open to anyone 18 years or older, professional or amateur; VAI membership is not required. • You may upload up to five photos in each category, for a maximum of 25 photos. • File types accepted are jpg or png. Minimum resolution for all categories is 300 dpi at 8 by 10 inches. • You must own the copyright to any photo you submit (in other words, you either took the photo or can document that you paid the photographer for the rights to the photo). • Each photo must show all or part of a vertical aviation aircraft, including helicopters, tiltrotors, autonomous helicopters, large drones, and advanced air mobility aircraft. (If you capture some pilots, flight crew, maintenance technicians, or passengers, that’s great too.) Prizes and Publication VAI will announce the winners of the 2027 VAI Photo Contest on Mon., Feb. 1, 2027. The top photographer in each category will win $100; the photographer who submits the top-rated photo overall will receive the Grand Prize of $500. Winning photos will appear on various VAI websites and will be displayed at VERTICON 2027 in Anaheim, California, Mar. 15–18 (exhibits open Mar. 16–18). In addition, all photos submitted to the contest will be eligible to appear as the Photo of the Week in the VAI Weekly e-newsletter. To see the full list of contest rules plus a look back at previous contest winners, visit photo.verticalavi.org and enter today! Questions? Send an email to photocontest@vertialavi.org.
