In the Australian context, greater emphasis has been placed on capstone design projects to address research requirements associated with honours-level engineering degrees. This work highlights the implementation of CDIO for aeronautical engineering capstone projects. Two students in 2022 were offered a digital engineering CDIO-based capstone design project with sustainable aviation objectives as part of their thesis project. The case study highlights that many CDIO aspects can be successfully incorporated into a fourth-year engineering project for aeronautical engineering and why that succeeds. The use of digital simulation facilitates a cost-effective means by which engineered aerospace systems can be implemented,