ARLINGTON, Virginia USA (PRNewswire) — Lockheed Martin has made winning the Team America Rocketry Challenge pay off even more for the top finishers, adding $15,000 worth of scholarship money to the pot.

The extra prize will be split evenly among the top three finishers, an added draw for students to the world's largest rocket contest and careers in science and high technology, AIA President and CEO John Douglass said.

"This contest is aimed at attracting young people to aerospace careers, and scholarship money is a great incentive," Douglass said. "Lockheed Martin has certainly stepped up to the plate with this extra incentive."

The final round of the contest, which is in its fifth year, is scheduled for May 19 at the Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. Teams of between three and 15 middle and high school students are challenged to design and hand-build a model rocket and launch it to exactly 850 feet in altitude and 45 seconds in flight duration. The rockets also carry a raw-egg payload, which must return to the earth unbroken.

Members of the top team also earn a trip to the International Paris Air Show sponsored by another AIA company, Raytheon.

AIA sponsors the contest along with the National Association of Rocketry. NASA, the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and 38 member companies are also supporting the contest this year.

A number of AIA companies are helping sponsor some of the 100 individual finalist teams cover travel costs and other expenses. Those include Aerojet, Cubic Corp., Eaton Aerospace, Embraer Aircraft, Goodrich Corp., Honeywell, LMI Aerospace, National Machine Group, Parker Aerospace, Rolls-Royce North America, and Space Exploration Technologies.

Founded in 1919, the Aerospace Industries Association represents the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military, and business aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, space systems, aircraft engines, materiel, and related components, equipment services, and information technology.

Contact: Matt Grimison of Aerospace Industries Association, +1-703-358-1076, cell: +1-571-217-0881, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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