Theme: ‘Fly to Save Lives’
Lausanne, Switzerland – For over a hundred years, humans have looked to the skies with wonder. What was once a dream is now a vital part of everyday life-aviation connects people, overcomes distance, and plays a crucial role in saving lives. For the 2026 FAI Young Artists Contest, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) invites young artists to reflect on the life- saving power of flight through this year’s inspiring theme: ‘Fly to Save Lives’.
Aircraft and air sports do far more than move people from one place to another. In emergencies, helicopters and drones deliver medical supplies, rescue stranded individuals, battle wildfires, and provide urgent aid to remote regions. The ability to fly allows us to reach those in need-quickly, efficiently, and often heroically.
But flying can also help save lives in quieter ways. Air sports such as paragliding, ballooning, gliding, and drone flying offer people a unique sense of freedom, focus, and connection to nature that promotes mental clarity, happiness, and emotional strength.
FAI encourages young artists from around the world to pick up their pencils, brushes, or crayons and show how aviation and air sports can save lives, bring hope, and build a better world from above. The 2026 theme, ‘Fly to Save Lives’, invites you to imagine the many ways flying can help people- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. From pilots and drone operators delivering aid, to skydivers raising awareness, to the quiet joy of a paraglider soaring over the mountains, the sky is full of opportunities to help, heal, and inspire hope.
Let your imagination take flight-because in the air, saving lives takes many forms.
Aviation as a Force for Good
Practicing air sports isn’t only about knowing how to fly an aircraft, pilot a drone, or glide through the sky. It’s also about discovering inner strengths- courage, calmness, confidence, and a deep sense of purpose. These activities challenge us physically and mentally, but they also teach us to care for others, respond to emergencies, and use our talents to make a meaningful impact.
Aviation can be life-changing-and life-saving. Whether it’s a pilot delivering medicine to a remote village, a drone operator helping firefighters monitor a wildfire, or a balloonist bringing supplies after a storm, every flight has the potential to bring hope, help, and healing.
Time to Create!
It’s time to grab your brushes and pencils! Imagine how aviation and air sports can save lives. Can you picture a rescue mission in the mountains? A drone delivering aid to a flooded village? Or someone soaring through the sky, finding strength and healing through flight?
Your artwork could show heroes in the air, people supporting one another through aviation, or even peaceful skies filled with life-saving action. Flying connects us-to each other and to the world. Let your creativity take off and show how flight can bring care, protection, and hope to others. The sky is not just for adventure-it’s where lives are changed, and hope begins.
Age Categories
The 2026 FAI Young Artists Contest is open to young people between the ages of 6 and 17, with FAI gold, silver and bronze medals and diplomas awarded to the top three artists in each of the following age categories:
- Group I – Junior Category : (Date of birth between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2019)
- Group II – Intermediate Category : (Date of birth between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015)
- Group III- Senior Category : (Date of birth between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2011)
In 2025, artworks were submitted from countries including China, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Thailand, and the USA.
See below the detailed rule of FAI Young Artists Contest.
