Competition
The uOttawa Aerospace Team is a competitive team, meaning, every year, we aim to compete head-to-head with other Universities’ aircraft 
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Many different Canadian teams attend the competitions
Waiting in line at the 2025 SAE Aero Design East CompetitionBoth our Micro Class team and our Advanced Class team attended the SAE Aero Design Competition East in Dallas, Texas, in May of 2025. While the focus of SAE Aero Design is to design an original aircraft that meets the design requirements as best as possible, Attending competition events are a great way to validate our own design 
, gain inspiration from other team’s original designs, and build connections with like-minded people from both industy and other Universities 
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As Described by SAE themselves:
The SAE Aero Design competition is intended to provide undergraduate and graduate engineering students with a real-life engineering challenge. The competition has been designed to provide exposure to the kinds of situations that engineers face in their real-life work environment. First and foremost a design competition, students will find themselves performing trade studies and making compromises to arrive at a design solution that will optimally meet the mission requirements while still conforming to the configuration limitations.
Centering team motivation behind the SAE Aero Design competition is an effective way to get feedback for our designs from industry professionals and to keep the team united towards a single goal. Students get to chose, based on their abilities and knowledge, one of our two subteams: Micro or Advanced. These subteams are not strictly isolated; members can work on whichever tasks suits them best. This approach makes sure that students from a variety of backgrounds can find their own role on the team.
Micro
This subteam works towards designing and manufacturing an aircraft for the SAE Aero Design Micro Class.
The goal for Micro Class is to make an aircraft that can take off in the shortest distance possible, with a small wingspan and power limit of 500w. The aircraft must also be able to hold a water payload, with incentives for holding more water while in flight.
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. -SAE
Advanced
This subteam works towards designing and manufacturing an aircraft for the SAE Aero Design Advanced Class.
The goal for Advanced Class is to make an autonomous aircraft that can deliver and pickup a payload, land tand takeoff horizontally, all with a limit of ~1.5 kg (payload included) and a maximum of 3 rotors.
Advanced Class requires teams to have a systems approach to the design while integrating several engineering disciplines: aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. The ultimate end goal for this class is autonomous flight with a “purpose” decided every year by rules committee members. -SAE
