SAE Aero Design East and SAE Aero Design West

SAE Aero Design challenges university students to assume a system engineering approach to design and prototype radio-controlled or autonomous aircraft. Students analyze requirements, perform trade-studies, present a technical design report and build a prototype aircraft to match the requirements.

Complimentary Software

MathWorks provides complimentary software for this competition. If your team is participating in this competition and needs software, fill out the software request form.

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Student Tutorials and Videos

Learn how to use MATLAB and Simulink to design algorithms, create simulations, deploy code, and speed up software development for your projects.

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Competition Resources

General Resources

Sensitivity Analysis with MATLAB for Student Competition Scores

Constraint Analysis (CA) Live Task for Aircraft Design

Aircraft Performance Analyzer (APA) Live Task

Electric Aircraft Model in Simscape

Aircraft Intuitive Design (AID)

Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation (HITL) with PX4

Aircraft Design Optimization with the Fixed-Wing Object

Determine Nonlinear Dynamics and Static Stability of Fixed-Wing Aircraft

Importing from USAF Digital DATCOM Files

Fly the De Havilland Beaver with Unreal Engine Visualization

Calculating Best Glide Quantities

Airframe Trim and Linearize

Aircraft Longitudinal Flight Control

Videos

Sensitivity Analysis with MATLAB for Student Competitions

Overview of MATLAB and Simulink for Student Aerospace Competitions (33:49)

Conceptual Aircraft Design for Aerospace Design Competitions (55:22)

Flight Dynamics and Stability Analysis for Aerospace Design Competitions (1:08:25)

Flight Simulation for Aerospace Design Competitions (1:03:58)

Model Aircraft Design Optimization with MATLAB (20:10)

Aerospace Videos for Students (6 videos)

Video Tutorials for Your Team

Interactive Online Tutorials

Learn by doing! Our two-hour online courses provide a hands-on learning environment where you will interact with a web-based version of MATLAB and receive instant and contextual feedback.

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