Founded in 1952, SAU is situated in the center of Northern College Town of Shenyang. The campus occupies a magnificent landscape of 1,200,000 square meters, with building areas of 600,000 square meters. The first airplane, designed and made by the joint effort of SAU students and teachers took off to the sky as early as 1958. The university currently enrolls 22,000 students and has a staff of 1600, of which 1000 are academic teachers. SAU has a total of 113 professors and 271 associate professors. With a focus on aeronautical and astronautical disciplines, SAU's scope is enlarged with a curriculum covering such areas as science, liberal arts and management, etc. The university offers 57 disciplines for undergraduate studies and 55 for master degrees. On campus, there are more than 20 aircrafts and a hundred of research labs. The engineering practice center is of national standard. SAU is proud of its unique helicopter maintenance centre in China. SAU will soon be authorized to issue license for fixed-wing aircraft maintenance.

International Education remains a major goal of SAU. There are totally 370 international students from over 40 countries studying on the campus for their Bachelor and Master Degrees in English medium or Chinese medium and the Chinese language program. The programs offered in English medium for bachelors degree are Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications, Computer Science, Art Design and International Economics and Trade; for masters degree program, we offer Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering and Enterprises Management.

At the present, SAU has established co-operation with many companies such as Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Group Corporation and AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, etc. SAU has also developed a network of 50 partners to provide its students with abundant opportunities for practical training.