Cal Aero SAE: Who Are We?

Aerospace SAE is Berkeley's largest model RC aircraft competition club. We spend each year designing, manufacturing, testing, and flying aircraft in preparation for the SAE International Aero Design West competition each Spring. We teach our team the necessary analysis, design, and manufacturing skills necessary for not only the construction of an aircraft, but for the foundations of a career in the broader field of engineering. It is our mission to provide practical skills on aircraft engineering to anyone who is interested; we have no applications and instead offer training and guidance for all students regardless of major.

At the 2024 SAE Aero Design West Competition, we were the #3 US-based team and placed a remarkable #10 overall. This year, we’re shooting for first place!

Members of our team at the 2024 SAE Aero Design West Competition. We had a lot of fun!

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 of our team showing off our confidence at competition last year!

During our design phase in the fall semester, we use professional software such as MATLAB, SolidWorks, and Ansys to design and optimize our aircraft. Then, in the spring semester, 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. It is certainly no easy feat, and everyone puts 110% into designing and manufacturing the plane.

Putting on some last-minute finishing touches to our plane before our test flight in February.

This year, the competition will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, and more than 25 of our student engineers will fly to the competition. After the pandemic, airfare costs have risen dramatically. Your donations will help us reduce the cost each member pays out of pocket to attend the competition, which means more team members will have the unique opportunity to attend the final culmination of their hard work and see our plane succeed in the skies!

Our gorgeous plane taking off into the blue California skies.

The diagram below shows a brief overview of our expenditures last year, where the competition was held in Southern California, and our projected expenditures this year, where we will fly to Fort Worth, Texas for the competition this year. 

Our expenses for 24-25 (top) and our projected expenses for 25-26 (bottom). 
The cost of travel has almost doubled our expenditures! ($11,255 → $22,460)
All estimates are rough only, and actual expenditures may vary.

We plan to use your donations in March and April of 2026, when the SAE Aero Design West competition occurs. If we meet our goal, everyone on our team will be able to go to competition in Texas and see the culmination of a years' worth of work! 

Traveling to Texas with a huge plane is no easy feat. Here’s where every dollar of your donation goes: 

The $4,000 in funding will first be applied to Freight Shipping, then Lodging and Rentals, then the Airfare Subsidy, depending on availability of external funding sources.

With our current funding estimates, each team member’s individual cost to attend competition is approximately $800. With your help, we can reduce the cost significantly, allowing more team members to attend the competition. If we don't reach our goal, life isn't over! Each team member will have to pay out of pocket for their competition travel expenses, with a reduced subsidy for each member. Every donation helps, no matter how big or small!

FROM EVERYONE AT CAL AERO SAE, THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Club President Richie Woo at president@asae.berkeley.edu. We welcome suggestions and tips to save money!