Latest successes of Polish students

The international SAE Aero Design competition, organised since 1986, attracts students of aeronautical engineering at technical universities around the world. The event is held annually in the U.S. and Brazil, and divided into two editions - East and West. The task young engineers are faced with is to design, build and fly a remote-controlled cargo aircraft model. The winner is the team whose aircraft lifts the heaviest payload - with a minimum own weight of the model. Aircrafts compete in three classes: Micro, Regular and Advanced.

Students from Warsaw had the greatest success in the Regular class, ranking first in the overall standings. Regular class is a competition in which the objective is to lift the heaviest payload, but it has to be loaded onto the plane in one minute.

Warsaw students won second place in the Micro class, in which small aircrafts compete, usually powered by electric motors or by very small internal combustion engines. The team from Warsaw took the third place in the Advanced class. This is the competition of powerful flying machines, with a wingspan of over 3 meters, equipped with multiple engines. The plane lifts the payload and dumps it at a fixed location.

Students from the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering have been competinge since 1991, and participation in the competition is the main aspect of the SAE Collegiate Club activity. In last year's competition, they were the first team in the history of Aero Design West to take the three first places in the overall standings in all three aircraft classes.

In the West edition of the competition, which was held in March 2014 in the state of Texas, Poland was represented by students of Wrocław University of Technology. Polish aircraft “Drop” outclassed rivals in the Micro class.