SAE Aero Team Display

Learn about the micro remote-controlled plane that the Union College Aero team has recently
designed, fabricated and built for the recent competition hosted by the Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE). The SAE Aero Design competition is intended to provide undergraduate and
graduate engineering students with a real-life engineering challenge. The competition has been
designed to provide exposure to the kinds of situations that engineers face in their real-life work
environment. First and foremost a design competition, students will find themselves performing
trade studies and making compromises to arrive at a design solution that will optimally meet the
mission requirements while still conforming to the configuration limitations.
SAE Aero Design features three classes of competition-Regular, Advanced, and Micro. Regular
Class continues to be the class with the purpose to develop the fundamental understanding of
flight. We recommended Regular Class for first year teams interested in competing. Advanced
Class requires teams to have a systems approach to the design while integrating several
engineering disciplines: aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. The
ultimate end goal for this class is autonomous flight with a "purpose" decided every year by rules
committee members. Micro Class teams are required to make trades between two potentially
conflicting requirements, carrying the highest payload fraction possible, while simultaneously
pursuing the lowest empty weight possible.
This year, the Micro Aero Team plane competed in the SAE Aero West Competition held in
Fort-Worth, TX on April 14-16. For this year's design, Union Aero redesigned the plane from
the previous year's designs to make it lighter and easier to repair when needed.