Designing, building, and flying autonomous aerial systems to compete at the highest levels of collegiate unmanned aviation.
Spartan Flight is San José State University's student-run unmanned aerial systems team. We compete annually in the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) Competition against 70+ international teams. Building a complete autonomous system is as much an engineering challenge as it is a financial one.
Members participate in one of four distinct subteams, each bringing specialized expertise to our mission.
Designs and manufactures lightweight, reliable composite aircraft. Responsible for structural analysis, CAD modeling, payload mechanisms, and landing systems to meet competition requirements.
Manages all electronics systems: power distribution, PCB design, sensor integration, telemetry systems, and custom battery management. Creates the robust electronics backbone for flight success.
Designs autonomous flight systems including path planning, computer vision, obstacle avoidance, and ground station control. Enables fully autonomous mission execution.
Manages sponsorships, funding, and team outreach. Handles marketing, graphics, social media, and partnerships to support our mission and grow the team.
X650 quadcopter platform designed for the 2026 SUAS competition with autonomous navigation, computer vision, and precision payload delivery.
We tackle the full spectrum of autonomous aerial systems through practical engineering challenges.
Follow our journey from design to competition. Read about our latest developments, testing results, and lessons learned.
Major milestone for Spartan Flight! We completed initial flight tests with our X650 platform and hosted our first general meeting to open the club to more students.
Major milestone - Spartan Flight is now an officially recognized student organization at SJSU! We secured a faculty advisor and established our social media presence.
All major components have been ordered and received! The team spent the month researching vendors and making critical purchasing decisions for our competition vehicle.
Amplify your brand with Spartan Flight and support our mission to build autonomous aerial systems.
