On March 15-17, 2013, a group of Georgia Tech students were victorious in the micro class of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design East competition for the second year in a row. The Aero Design competition challenges students to design, build and fly a remote controlled airplane to meet a set of requirements that change from year-to-year for three different classes: micro, regular and advanced. There were 75 teams at the competition, held in Fort Worth, TX, from throughout the world, including 23 teams in the micro class. The Georgia Tech team competed in both the micro and regular class.

The micro class required the team to build a hand or catapult launched electric powered airplane that has a very low empty weight and can still carry a heavy payload.  The Georgia Tech team built a flying wing with an empty weight lower than the average cell phone that could still carry over 4.6 times its own weight in steel payload.  In addition to taking the overall first place in the micro class, the Georgia Tech team also won an award for the top micro class design report, for carrying the second highest payload fraction, and for the third place design report in the regular class.

A total of 40 students from both the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Schools are part of the team, ranging from freshman to graduate students and led by AE senior Tom Neuman.  The team is sponsored by Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Lockheed Martin.