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Boys hope to earn spot in Guinness World Records  AUSTIN, Texas USA — A group of local Boy Scouts, with the help of 965 model rockets, may have launched themselves into the Guinness World Records.
Members of Cub Scout Pack 990 and Boy Scout Troop 990 spent six months assembling the models, and with a bang and a cloud of smoke, the rockets simultaneously shot up in the air at the Travis County Exposition Center on Saturday morning. About 100 boys, who ranged from elementary school students to high school students, participated in the project. When the crowd of a couple hundred people shouted the final seconds of the countdown, 10-year-old Chandler Friesenhahn, the lucky Scout chosen to flip the ignition switch, let them fly. Cheers erupted. "It was really awesome," Friesenhahn said after the launch. "It was the best thing I've seen in my life." Ethan Phillips, 10, came up with the record-breaking idea last year after reading about an Omaha, Neb., troop that set the record by simultaneously launching 399 rockets. He told his dad, Rich Phillips, that he thought Scouts in Austin could beat that. Each Scout family was asked to build 25 rockets, from kits that included cardboard tubs, wooden fins and plastic nose cones. Each rocket was also outfitted with a small engine and a parachute. There were assembly parties and painting parties. Older Scouts helped organize and teach the younger Scouts who pieced the rockets together. "The first one was hard, but I've done it so much that I could do it by heart," Ethan Phillips said. "I don't even need the instructions anymore." The scouts raised $8,000 for supplies. Quest Aerospace and the Austin Area Rocketry Group advised the Scouts, and G.W. Pyro, a Jarrell-based company that specializes in firework displays, helped wire the rockets to a single switch. Preparations for the launch began at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, and by 10 a.m. there were 1,000 brightly painted rockets pointed skyward in the parking lot. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, attended the launch to congratulate the students and encourage them to keep experimenting with science and technology. "I'm hopeful that in some small way, this is going to pique some interest in these kids," McCaul said. "It's very exciting." The Scouts had made 1,000 rockets, knowing that not all of them would launch as planned. They hoped for 990, to match their troop number, but 965 should still be enough for the record, Rich Phillips said. The Scouts will submit information about the project and documentation of the launch to the Guinness World Records. They should know by the end of the summer whether they are the new record holders, Rich Phillips said. "There is a rumor that people are already thinking about beating us," Phillips said, smiling. Copyright © 2007, Austin American-Statesman. |
