We provide the Experience; You supply the Knowledge.
Backed by industry and academia, the mission of SAE Aero Design is to provide students with real-world engineering experience through aircraft design challenges. Competition rules were designed to compress a typical aircraft development program into one calendar year, following the early development phase of system engineering and requirements derivation. The Aero Design competition will expose participants to the nuances of conceptual design, manufacturing, system integration/testing, and verification through demonstration.
SAE Aero Design features three classes of competition - Regular, Advanced and Micro.
Virtual Volunteering:
Written Report Judge: Judges will review and score assigned teams' 30 page written design reports. Each judge will receive 3-4 design reports to assess based on a given rubric.
- Aero Design East: Reports to be distributed around Feb 5 with judging to be completed at your own pace prior to March 3.
- Aero Design West: Reports to be distributed around March 11 with judging to be completed at your own pace prior to April 7.
Technical Presentation Judge: Presentation judges will assess oral presentations of student teams (via Microsoft Teams) and enter scoring into an online scoring portal. The score shall be comprised of scores from each judge based on the judges’ evaluation of the technical content and the team’s readiness to compete. Training is provided, although a technical background in the industry is preferred.
- Aero Design East Presentations will be held virtually on Fri, February 19 and Fri, February 26
- Aero Design West Presentations will be held virtually on Fri, March 26 and Fri, April 2
Aero Design East - Florida
Onsite Volunteering: March 5 – March 7, 2027
Event Location:
Paradise Field
3875 W Pipkin Rd
Lakeland, FL 33811
Aero Design West - California
Onsite Volunteering: April 9 – April 11, 2027
Event Location:
Apollo 11 Model Aircraft Field
Woodley Ave
Lake Balboa, CA 91406
Code of Conduct
All SAE Volunteers are expected to uphold the highest standards for professional conduct while volunteering for an SAE Program. Volunteers must treat all participants with courtesy, respect, and dignity. Volunteers are responsible for modeling professional conduct and for cultivating a respectful and inclusive program.
To foster a just and safe community unprofessional behavior, including that which is intimidating, threatening, violent, inappropriate, illegal, or dishonest, will be addressed by promoting accountability and following up with any actions necessary. Unprofessional behavior may result in the removal of volunteers from the program indefinitely.
