Design and building of UAVs (for civil and military missions) is a field of actuation where the most important Universities, research Centers and Aeronautical designers have dedicated a lot of human effort. This paper describes a long research work carried out by a group of UPM professors who are currently coordinating the design and building of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at the EUIT. Aeronáutica to synthesize the work done in the twelve years. We first focus with the validity of this experience as a means to develop some skills and to achieve some teaching competencies which will be essential for engineers in the 21st Century, according to the Bologna Process project Tuning. The second part presents the highlights of the project: all the features and stages of this engineering project, and the current moment of evolution in the process will be presented, together with a description of the main difficulties the project has undergone, as a global experience in engineering design and development