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British Students Win U.S.-UK Rocket Contest at Farnborough

July 18, 2008

A student rocket team from England edged a squad from North Carolina to win the Trans-Atlantic Trophy Friday in the inaugural contest between champions from the United States and United Kingdom. In an extremely close competition, students from Horsforth Secondary School in Yorkshire, England prevailed over their counterparts from Enloe High School, who traveled from Raleigh, N.C. for the event. The margin of victory was a razor-thin 7.41 points in a scoring system where the teams are penalized for every second or foot away from the launch goals, and the low score wins. Horsforth ended with a score of 8.91, while Enloe had 16.32 -- both very good scores. The competition pitted the winners of the Team America Rocketry Challenge against the champions of the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge, known as UKAYRoC. TARC is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, along with about three dozen AIA member companies. UKAYRoC is organized by Tri Polus Ltd. and the UK Rocketry Association. AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said both teams showed great ability and should be very proud of their achievements. "With kids this talented, there are nothing but winners here today," Blakey said. "All of these students excelled, and I expect we will see many of them as colleagues in the aerospace industry in a few years." Both contests feature teams of middle and high school-aged students designing and building model rockets to meet specific launch criteria. The goal during the Trans-Atlantic Trophy challenge was to fly 750 feet in altitude and stay aloft for 45 seconds, while returning a payload of two raw eggs unbroken. Also Friday, the new rules for next year's TARC contest were announced. The height and time goals remain the same, but the one-egg payload be transported lying on its side rather than positioned vertically. That mimics the position of an astronaut and presents the teams with a new engineering challenge. TARC, in its sixth year, is geared toward attracting young people to careers in the aerospace industry. There is a potential workforce crisis looming in aerospace since current employees are becoming eligible to retire, and fewer students are studying math, science and engineering. The trip to England was part of the Enloe team's first prize -- a premium paid for by AIA member company Raytheon. Raytheon also sponsored Friday's event and provided prizes for both teams.