Who are we?

Aerospace SAE is Berkeley's largest RC aircraft club. It is our mission to help anyone who wants to learn about RC aircraft gain the skills they need to design and build. We have no applications and instead offer training sessions for students interested, regardless of major. As an organization, we are not only competitive, but we also strive to educate young engineers in skills that will be useful for the rest of their engineering career. 

Members of our team at the 2023 SAE Aero Design West Competition

The SAE Aero Design West Competition releases a new ruleset every three years with interesting challenges for students, including carrying soccer balls or creating a modular plane. These challenges help students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills that are essential not just for engineering, but for life. 

Members Working On Tail Assembly

 During our design phase, we use professional software such as MATLAB, SolidWorks, and Ansys to design and optimize our aircraft. Then, in the spring semester (right now!), we begin to manufacture and assemble the aircraft. This involves countless hours of hands-on work in the wood shop, machine shop, and Makerspace as we cut, machine, glue, and fasten various components of the aircraft. 

Members working on fuselage assembly

Of course, the materials that we use don't come for free! In fact, the high-quality specific materials we use on our plane, such as balsa wood, spruce wood, and 6061 aluminum are quite expensive. Additionally, we need to transport our completed aircraft to Van Nuys, California in mid-April for our competition. The costs add up quick and the diagram below shows our spending during the last competition season, 2022-23.

This budget provides a rough estimate only, and actual expenditures may vary.

 We are specifically using some of this money to buy team shirts, which we haven’t been able to do in the past. It would be great for the students to have something that marks them as part of the club and showcases their significant contributions to the club. The $1,500 goal for this crowdfunding campaign is also intended to help us reach our materials costs this competition season and any incurring costs that inevitably happen during competition.

Your donations would go a long way in helping us obtain the necessary materials used in making our aircraft. Even a small donation would be great! From all our team members, we thank you! 

If the project is not fully funded, all donations will still be transferred. Aerospace SAE will prioritize subsidizing our hardware costs, and will explore other fundraising opportunities to bring our project to life.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Linda Krellner at linda.krellner@berkeley.edu.