LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A team from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) won the first place in overall Advanced Class of the SAE Aero Design West competition 2019.
"This year the rules have been changed and become more complicated," Li Yongxin, coach of the BUAA team, told Xinhua Wednesday, adding that the university took part in the competition in 2012, 2017 and 2018.
"Our students were able to break the language barrier, and won another first place in Advanced Class. It is by far the best performance of our team," Li said after this year's competition held from Friday to Sunday in Van Nuys, a suburban city west of downtown Los Angeles.
According to SAE International, a total of 74 teams took part in this year's competition, which is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate engineering students with engineering challenges in a real-life work environment.
The participating teams will conceive, design, fabricate, and test a radio controlled aircraft that can take off, land, and optimally meet the mission requirements.
SAE Aero Design, which consists of two regional competition, East and West, features three classes of competition -- Regular, Advanced, and Micro.
Regular Class aims to develop the fundamental understanding of flight, and Advanced Class requires teams to have a systems approach to the design while integrating several engineering disciplines: aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers.
Micro Class teams are required to make trades between two potentially conflicting requirements, carrying the highest payload fraction possible, while simultaneously pursuing the lowest empty weight possible.
Each class is required to participate in written design, oral presentation and flight performance. This year, the Advanced Class' mission is simulating to deliver goods by an unmanned aerocraft on Mars.
Twelve students from BUAA won the first place in oral presentation and in flight performance, while third place in written design, which put the team at the first place in overall performance.
The event is sponsored by SAE, a U.S.-based automotive engineers' society covering several different industries. This group has over 140,000 global members.
