The SAE Aero Design Competition West will be held on April 22-24 2015 in Van Nuys, California.  This year, the team plans on competing in the Advanced Class. On September 10, 2015 SAE released the new rules for this year’s competition which included major changes.

The goals of the Advanced Class Competition are:

1) Build a plane that can carry the most amount of static payload

2) The plane needs to carry multiple 2 lb packages of sand that will be released from the plane

3) The packages of sand must have a brightly colored ribbon attached to it, that can not get tangled

4) The packages of sand should hit a target. The target is a circle with various rings inside. The closer to the center ring the sand lands, the more points are earned.

5) The plane must be 100 feet in the air when the packages are dropped. The telemetry system will record this value.

6) The center of gravity of the plane must be marked and the dynamic payload must be within 6 inches of this mark.

The team is in the process of changing their previous design to fit the new rules.