The SAE Aero Design competition is a real‐world design challenge that challenges teams to develop an aircraft from concept to execution within one year. Participants are exposed to conceptual design, hands-on manufacturing, system integration & testing, culminating in a final in-person demonstration of the team’s designed solution.
The 2022-2023 ruleset will be released in September 2022. Teams have till March 2023 to complete all aspects of their competition submission. The in-person competition for the 2022-2023 design cycle will be held in Van Nuys, California, USA in April 2023.
The competition is split into three classes: Regular, Advanced, and Micro. UAlberta Aero Design will be competiting in the Micro Class for the 2022-2023 design cycle – on which Aero has already begun working on!
MICRO CLASS
“The objective of the Micro Class is to challenge engineering students to design a small, light-weight, all electric aircraft to overcome various conflicting design and performance requirements such as short take-off, max-speed, external payload carriage, internal payload carriage, and rapid unloading of the payloads.”
– 2022 Collegiate Design Series SAE Aero Design Ruleset
The designed solution for the Micro Class requires the design, manufacturing, and testing of this aircraft.

Electric remote-controlled aircraft capable of carrying static payload.
Max wingspan: 36 inches
Max take-off weight: 55 lbs
Power limit: 450W