Engineering students win international aircraft design competition

The UC Aerocats Advanced team earned first place in the SAE Aero Design Competition. Photo/Provided

The SAE Aero Design competition features three classes - regular, micro, and advanced - each with its own requirements challenges. For the last six years, UC teams have only competed in the regular and micro classes at the event in Florida. Nearly a year before the March 2026 competition, this group of students began discussing whether they could take on the advanced class.

Jacob Weeks, a fifth-year aerospace engineering student and the team's build and repair lead, said that he joined the project in April of 2025, months before the fall semester started.

"I have a few friends in aerospace and back in April, they texted me and asked if I wanted to do the project with them," Weeks said. "One of my friends reached out to our advisor, Matt Wyborski, asking if competing in advanced was possible. He said if you're going to do it, start working now."

Each year, requirements are developed by the SAE International committee and vary by class. All three classes present rigorous design constraints, including strict guidelines for weight, length and performance.

For the advanced team, one of the biggest challenges was keeping the aircraft's total weight under 3.5 pounds. Jones said that several meetings leading up to competition were solely focused on weight cutting.

Wind was another major concern. At such a low weight, even a slight wind could take the aircraft totally off course.

The objective for the advanced class aircraft was to complete a mission autonomously. The plane was required to take off and fly, land in a designated landing zone, deliver a payload, return to flight, and land again. With the mission in mind, the team had much to consider when designing the aircraft.

Jacob Weeks served as the build and repair lead for the Aerocats advanced team. Photo/Provided

"Over the course of the project, we built close to ten aircraft," Weeks said. "We initially built three that were competition ready that we could use for testing. We lost two of those three, so we built three more."

During the first test flight, the team realized their aircraft design was ideal for a computer to fly it, not so much a human. So, they had to make some changes to ensure it was competition ready.

"The most important thing was getting it out there and seeing it fly in real life. We learned more from that than anything else," Weeks said.

When it came time for redesigns, the team worked as a unit. While each member was responsible for a specific area - such as flight operations, controls, or payload systems - major decisions were made collectively and didn't fall on one person.

Beyond flight performance, teams were evaluated in three distinct categories: design report, flight readiness review, and flight score. The first day of competition included the design report and readiness review. Walking into flight day, the Aerocats advanced team was in first place.

"Our heads were held high for most of the competition because we knew we had a title to defend," Jones said.

The team brought three competition-ready aircraft with them to Florida. Photo/Provided

During the flight portion of the competition, some unforeseen difficulties forced the students to evaluate their standing and make compromises for their flight runs. The team opted to run more, simpler flights instead of attempting the full mission. Getting the plane in the air would guarantee points, and a failed mission could be detrimental.

"A lot of teams had to fix their planes on competition day, so the flight line got really empty, opening up a lot of space for us to get in the air and get some guaranteed points, which was really necessary for us to get first place," Jones said.

Despite the competitive environment, there was a sense of camaraderie among teams from all over the world. Even though they were competing for the same prize, the teams had a mutual respect for the hard work and creativity of other teams. The students shared that the competition was one of the best parts of their time at UC, getting to work together and see their months of hard work pay off.

Leading up to the awards ceremony, Weeks said they knew they were neck and neck with another school. When the other school was announced as second place, they were in disbelief when they realized they had won.

"The competition was the best experience of my life," Jones said.

UC's regular class team also had a successful competition, placing fourth overall in their category. Their objective focused on how many two liter bottles the plane could carry, trying to maximize the weight. It was very limited takeoff with as much cargo space as possible.

"Seeing the plane take off and land, everyone cheering, it was probably the coolest experience I had in college," said Dylan Lawrence, Aerocats regular team member.

The Aerocats also received second place in the Student Organization category at the 2026 CEAS EXPO, a showcase of graduating students' capstone projects.