"Introduction to Aerospace and Design" is a 3-hour per week freshman elective course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that culminates in a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) vehicle design competition, exposing freshmen to the excitement of aerospace engineering design typically taught in the junior or senior years. In addition to the hands-on LTA vehicle design, the course also utilizes the opportunity to interactively present and disseminate curricula over the World Wide Web to motivate and teach students about engineering. This paper describes the instructional methods of the course and details the LTA design competition. (Contains 12 references.) (WRM)