SAE Aero Design East Competition Scheduled to Arrive in Deland, Florida

DELAND, Fla., March 31 -- Thirty-five (35) collegiate teams from thirty-one (31) North American Universities are preparing to compete in the SAE 2004 Aero Design East Competition, to be held April 16-18 in Deland, Florida.

The competition, one of two aerospace events that are part of the SAE Collegiate Design Series, will be hosted by the University of Central Florida in association with the SAE North Florida Section, and the Deland Flying Club.

This event is the culmination of a hands-on education process which has challenged teams to design and build an unmanned aerospace vehicle (UAV) that can take flight under its own power and is capable of carrying additional weight. The competition is an exciting way to provide students with real- world skills by encouraging teamwork and transferring engineering concepts to actual vehicle application.

The first day of the competition will be held at the Holiday Inn in Deland and consists of a technical inspection of each aircraft and a formal design presentation by each team. On Saturday and Sunday, April 17-18, the competition moves outdoors to the Deland R/C Airfield for the dynamic tests.

For additional information regarding this Aero Design East or other SAE student competitions, please visit the SAE http://www.sae.org/students/adeeventinfo.htm . The University of Central Florida maintains the official event site, which can be found at http://www.aeroeast.cecs.ucf.edu/ .

SAE is a non-profit engineering and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. Nearly 84,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles, including automobiles, aircraft, aerospace craft, trucks, buses, marine, rail and transit machinery. This information is disseminated through SAE meetings, books, electronic products and databases, technical papers, standards, reports, and professional development programs.