The U of A Aero SAE Heavy Lift Club is an engineering design club at the University of Alberta. The ultimate desire of the club is to design and construct an R/C model aircraft capable of lifting the maximum weight possible. There are design constraints set out by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) for their Aero Design® competitions held on an annual basis in the United States. Our team this year is small, but committed to creating a top-notch aircraft capable of competing with the best R/C aircrafts from teams all around North America. Members are excited for the competition, to see the fruits of their labor displayed on an international stage in California in March. Through involvement in Aero SAE students are finding a fun and exciting way of putting their knowledge to use. Through the design-construction nature of the aircraft production cycle, members are able to see the entire life cycle of the aircraft production, from initial idea conceptualization, through solid modeling, creation of drawings, part manufacturing, and finally aircraft assembly and testing. The SAE competition effectively caps off the year and builds up excitement for the next year’s club to start off with.

Through involvement with the club, students become more well-rounded engineers in the sense that they have worked to develop an actual product, fabricate it, and operate it.