STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) at Tarleton State University took home first-place overall and top honors in mission performance at the international SAE Aerospace Design competition held in Fort Worth earlier this month.
SAE at Tarleton State was organized three years ago and works to provide students with engineering experience outside of the classroom, giving them the opportunity to design, manufacture and compete in global collegiate competitions.
“I saw this team working late, working smart and working together,” said Dr. Rafael Landaeta, Dean of the Mayfield College of Engineering. “These are the leaders of the future and the engineers that we need to keep us safe, healthy and soaring toward the next frontier. Their creativity, discipline and resilience remind us why hands-on, high-impact learning matters. Proud is an understatement — these students represent the very best of what engineering education can produce.”
A total of 34 teams competed in the aerospace competition that had various elements to it, including a design report and flight readiness presentation. The final aspect of the competition is a mission where teams earn points by maximizing the wingspan, accurately predicting the payload and carrying as much payload as possible during the flight.
This year’s aircraft, “OP3,” named after Oscar P, the beloved Tarleton State legend, was a 21-pound plane that carried 34 pounds of payload weight, landing the team a first place in mission performance.
“Texan Aero has now competed for three years. In the first couple of years, the team focused on laying the groundwork for future success by building up team resources,” said Associate Professor and SAE faculty adviser Dr. Hoe-Gil Lee. “For this third year of competition, the team assembled an exceptional group of six engineering students. These engineers committed fully to the project, starting a year before the competition.”
Student participants Peter Van Ausdale (team lead), Isaac Bethea, Madalynn Sharp, Michael Gutierrez, Trevor Pierce and Malachi Torres committed over 2,000 hours to the entire project, conducting extensive research, creating design plans and constructing and testing the aircraft.
“Tarleton does not yet have an aerospace program like many of our competitors, so our team of mechanical engineers worked extremely hard to educate themselves on aircraft design,” said Bethea. “Going into competition, we understood that we had less manpower and resources than these larger programs, but we made it up with grit and determination to win.”
Additionally, this year was the first time that Tarleton State had a team compete in the SAE Baja Design competition, held in Arizona earlier this month. The goal of the contest is for students to design, engineer and manufacture an all-terrain, single-seat, off-road recreational vehicle that can withstand a series of difficult challenges.
The team of students who participated in this highly competitive event were Quentin Walker (team lead), Megan Smith, Luke Barry, Sam Semper, Cole Quaney and Wriley Ainsworth. This team also committed over 2,000 hours of work preparing for the competition.
Plans are already in the works for next year to improve designs and continue the legacy.
