ARLINGTON, Virginia USA (PRNewswire-USNewswire) — Countless hours spent designing, hand-building and testing model rockets has paid off for 100 teams that will be vying for the sixth annual Team American Rocketry Challenge national title next month.

The Aerospace Industries Association announced the finalists for the world's largest rocket contest Friday. A complete list of the qualifying teams is available at http://www.rocketcontest.org/.

The teams will meet at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va., on May 17 for a final fly-off and a chance to win more than $60,000 in scholarships and other prizes.

About 7,000 students on 643 teams from 43 states and the District of Columbia took part in the qualifying rounds of competition.

AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said the participating middle and high school students once again proved themselves to be both enthusiastic and creative, an encouraging sign as the aerospace industry faces a looming workforce shortage.

"I'm pleased to see such a committed group of finalists," Blakey said. "I'm looking forward to seeing these teams compete next month, but I'm even more excited to see what their futures hold. We're seeing here firsthand the faces of the future innovators for our industry."

The contest presents teams with a dual challenge. Teams must launch their rocket as close as possible to an altitude of 750 feet with a flight time of 45 seconds. The payload of two raw eggs must return to the ground unbroken.

Teams had until April 7 to submit qualifying scores, which were achieved by launching the rocket in their home region under the supervision of a judge from the National Association of Rocketry, AIA's co-sponsor of the contest. The competition is also sponsored by NASA, the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers and 34 AIA member companies.

AIA created the Team America Rocketry Challenge in 2003 to celebrate the centennial of flight and to generate interest in aerospace careers among young people. The aerospace and defense sector is bracing for a workforce crisis over the next decade as the scientists and engineers lured to the industry by the space race and the Cold War hit retirement and not enough qualified young Americans take their place. Almost 60 percent of the U.S. aerospace workforce is 45 or older, according to statistics compiled by AIA last year.

The aerospace industry offers a variety of career opportunities, from building space vehicles to designing state-of-the-art fighter aircraft to planning future commercial jetliners. Whether in engineering, production, testing or integration, aerospace careers are challenging and unique.

As a major supporter of the Team America Rocketry Challenge, Raytheon Company is sponsoring the winning team's trip to a major international air show for the third consecutive year this year. Last year, Raytheon took the winning team to the Paris Air Show, and members of this year's winning team will go to the Farnborough International Air Show near London in July. There they will compete in an international fly-off with the winner of theBritish version of the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

Lockheed Martin Corporation will provide $5,000 scholarships to each of the top three teams again this year, and NASA invites some of the top teams to participate in their Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program.

For more information about TARC, including details on how to sponsor a team or to apply for press credentials for the finals, visit http://www.rocketcontest.org/.

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.

Website: http://www.aia-aerospace.org/

Finalists

Alternates

1. Festus High School
   Team Number - 6406
   Festus, MO
   
2. Covenant Christian High School (Team 3)
   Team Number - 6281
   Indianapolis, IN
   
3. Orange Acres BackBreakers 4H Club
   Team Number - 6212
   Orange, CA
   
4. Laguna Creek High School
   Team Number - 6412
   Elk Grove, CA
   
5. Yough High School (Team 3)
   Team Number - 6394
   Herminie, PA
   
6. Butler County High School (Team 2)
   Team Number - 6057
   Morgantown, KY
   
7. North Canton Middle School (Team 3)
   Team Number - 6459
   North Canton, OH
   
8. Booker T. Washington High School (Team 2)
   Team Number - 6079
   Houston, TX
   
9. George West High School (Team 1)
   Team Number - 6025
   George West, TX
   
10. Apple Valley High School (Team 1)
    Team Number - 6332
    Apple Valley, MN
    
11. Templeton High School
    Team Number - 6294
    Templeton, CA
    
12. Al-hadi School
    Team Number - 6387
    Houston, TX
    
13. Newark Memorial High School (Team 2)
    Team Number - 6267
    Newark, CA
    
14. Sperry High School
    Team Number - 6414
    Sperry, OK
    
15. Westfield High School (Team 1)
    Team Number - 6128
    Chantilly, VA
    
16. Cooper High School
    Team Number - 6211
    Abilene, TX
    
17. Oakton High School (Team 2)
    Team Number - 6465
    Vienna, VA
    
18. Morton East High School
    Team Number - 6519
    Cicero, IL
    
19. Plantation High School (Team 3)
    Team Number - 6367
    Plantation, FL
    
20. Newark Memorial High School (Team 1)
    Team Number - 6266
    Newark, CA
    

04-11-2008 02:40 PM  #1
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 732	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocketry contest TARC is a shining example of an exemplary NAR program. They got it right and it is succeeding exceptionally well. Jerry

04-11-2008 02:47 PM  #2
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Thank God for the AIA?

04-11-2008 03:12 PM  #3
heada Certifiable   Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 597	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest As a mentor for a team one year and an adult NAR member qualifying multiple teams over several years, I have seen almost no involvement from the AIA. That doesn't mean that they're not involved or even acting in a critical role, just that from the team standpoint all you ever interact with is NAR. I don't agree with everything Jerry says but in this case I think he is 100% accurate. This program is great for rocketry and for students alike. -Aaron

04-11-2008 03:21 PM  #4
H_rocket Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 325	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest The AIA simply writes the checks and gathers the PR bonus. They also hope somewhere down the road they may score an first rate engineer or two. However the real praise for this should go to Trip Barber. His sheer strength of will is what makes this event happen. That and the efforts of all the volunteer mentors, sponsors, and range crew at the finals. There is absolutely no down side to TARC

04-11-2008 03:40 PM  #5
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 732	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Thank God for the AIA? This one is all about Trip Barber.

04-11-2008 03:56 PM  #6
lkal32 NAR 86607 L1   Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 146	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Congratulations to all teams! I know it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it that far and you need to be prepared to put everything you have into it if you want to push it even further. Keep flying and having fun; there's no better way to learn!

04-11-2008 04:16 PM  #7
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: The AIA simply writes the checks and gathers the PR bonus. They also hope somewhere down the road they may score an first rate engineer or two. Therein lies my point. AIA's deep pocketbooks allows hobby rocketry to reap the immediate benefit, they are betting they benefit in the end. Quote: However the real praise for this should go to Trip Barber. His sheer strength of ill is what makes this event happen. That and the efforts of all the volunteer mentors, sponsors, and range crew at the finals. I hope you meant the "strength of will" instead of "ill". But there is no doubt, Trip Barber is a man worth cloning! He is an excellent example of a hobby volunteer. Quote: There is absolutely no down side to TARC Not that I can see...

04-11-2008 05:23 PM  #8
rocketguy101 Frustrated Aero   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 25	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest when I first saw the thread title, I thought it was talking about the "world's largest rocket" contest amen about the props to Trip Barber and all the mentors--I love reading about the teams and see what a great job they do. I have approached our school system about fielding a team, but unfortunately sports (esp football) is king and all their efforts go into supporting that

04-11-2008 05:44 PM  #9
jsdemar NAR/TRA L3   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 322	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) is a different organization than the AIA (Aerospace Industry Association) which co-sponsors TARC. AIAA is an professional organization for individuals (I'm a member) and AIA is a consortium of businesses. Thank you for your attention. You may proceed with your current discussion. -John DeMar

04-11-2008 06:06 PM  #10
UncleVanya   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 1907	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Edited all previous messages to remove AIAA and replace with AIA per John's post.

04-11-2008 06:19 PM  #11
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Well, the title of the website is: Aerospace Industries Association of America http://www.google.com/sear...ries+Association+america

04-11-2008 07:45 PM  #12
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 732	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Well, the title of the website is: Aerospace Industries Association of America http://www.google.com/sear...ries+Association+america That may be but AIA and AIAA as commonly used are different organizations. I suspect this is not the first time they were confused.

04-11-2008 09:22 PM  #13
jsdemar NAR/TRA L3   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 322	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Well, the title of the website is: Aerospace Industries Association of America http://www.google.com/sear...ries+Association+america Nope, that's a Google artifact from your search string. Generated only on the Google results page and doesn't exist anywhere on the AIA page it points to. In fact, the html title code in the source says: -John

04-11-2008 09:41 PM  #14
UncleVanya   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 1907	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Nope, that's a Google artifact from your search string. Generated only on the Google results page and doesn't exist anywhere on the AIA page it points to. In fact, the html title code in the source says: -John I love it when Google is misleading. I searched for AIAA and AIA and got reasonably normal (expected) results after I say Darrell's post. But I can see how the Google result could confuse.

04-11-2008 10:26 PM  #15
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 732	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest I don't see many pages about HOW teams go for the contest goals. Rocket designs, motor selections, strategies, etc. Not even post-facto from winners. Where's that? Jerry

04-11-2008 10:36 PM  #16
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Nope, that's a Google artifact from your search string. Generated only on the Google results page and doesn't exist anywhere on the AIA page it points to. In fact, the html title code in the source says: I beg to differ. It is not a Google artifact. The company's official name is "Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc." Do a Google search on that name (http://www.google.com/sear...sociation+of+america+inc.) and you'll see it around, such as at: http://www.britannica.com/...e-Industries-Association http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERI...Type_0=no&accno=ED144783 http://www.allbusiness.com...auxiliary/4032514-1.html Someone needs to tell AIA what their name is, as it's even in the footer of one of their presentations: http://www.aqmd.gov/tao/co...rum/AylesworthSlides.pdf

04-12-2008 12:06 AM  #17
jsdemar NAR/TRA L3   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 322	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: I beg to differ. It is not a Google artifact. The company's official name is "Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc." You said the title of their website is "Aerospace Industries Association of America". It is not, and it doesn't appear on their home page. I stated it's an artifact of the Google search you did. It most definitely is. The 'official' corporate name appears once in a while (such as their "Terms and Conditions" and "Privacy Policy", but they always go by AIA, not AIAA. -John 'pedantic' DeMar

04-12-2008 12:57 AM  #18
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Whatever. All those links I posted are wrong and you are right. Feel better? Jerry, get over here and debate John, he's feeling ignored...

04-12-2008 10:16 AM  #19
jsdemar NAR/TRA L3   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 322	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Whatever. All those links I posted are wrong and you are right. Feel better? Hey... wanna buy a monkey? Those links you posted in your second message are correct in that they point to other webpages that refer to the "of America" name. But, your original post with the link to the Google search and the AIA website was a google artifact -- the site's title (and content) have no reference to the "of America" name of AIA. That's all I'm saying. You're welcome for the correction on AIA vs. AIAA.

04-12-2008 10:40 AM  #20
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Hey... wanna buy a monkey? Those links you posted in your second message are correct in that they point to other webpages that refer to the "of America" name. But, your original post with the link to the Google search and the AIA website was a google artifact -- the site's title (and content) have no reference to the "of America" name of AIA. That's all I'm saying. You're welcome for the correction on AIA vs. AIAA. No, I have no place to store a monkey, but thanks anyway. I was wrong when I stated that the title of the website was "Aerospace Industries Association of America" as denoted in the HTML of their site. I remember confusing the two, discovering that name during my earlier coverage of TARC in 2006-2007, during a Google search when the "Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc." name came up. But your contributions in the form of corrections are valuable to me, so I have promoted you to the position of RP End Arbiter, making you the "The Final Word on Everything." Thanks again.

04-12-2008 11:07 AM  #21
jsdemar NAR/TRA L3   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 322	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: But your contributions in the form of corrections are valuable to me, so I have promoted you to the position of RP End Arbiter, making you the "The Final Word on Everything." Thanks again. Gee, that sounds like a Major Award!

04-12-2008 11:09 AM  #22
lkal32 NAR 86607 L1   Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 146	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: I don't see many pages about HOW teams go for the contest goals. Rocket designs, motor selections, strategies, etc. Not even post-facto from winners. Where's that? Jerry Jerry, I too searched for other team logs when I competed last year and only managed to find one old site about a team, but it mostly contained photos and information about the contest rather than strategies and techniques they used. I wanted to document a lot of our progress and share with our local community to help gain support, so I made a website about our team and our TARC involvement ( lkal.net ). It doesnt contain explicit details about our rocket but it does more than any other team Ive seen. -Lucas

04-12-2008 05:10 PM  #23
ghost New Member   Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 1	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Jerry, I too searched for other team logs when I competed last year and only managed to find one old site about a team, but it mostly contained photos and information about the contest rather than strategies and techniques they used. I wanted to document a lot of our progress and share with our local community to help gain support, so I made a website about our team and our TARC involvement ( lkal.net ). It doesnt contain explicit details about our rocket but it does more than any other team Ive seen. -Lucas AIA actually is the one that processes all of the qualification forms (~600 this year) and organizes the finals - which is a HUGE feat. And it is really only one person at the AIA that does it... Anyways, TARC usually does not release specifics until after the finals. They don't want to embarrass teams who did not do well. But they do post specifics about the finals: http://www.aia-aerospace.o.../pdf/final_results07.pdf And my team keeps a pretty nice website: http://icinnamon.googlepages.com/tarc2008

04-12-2008 09:25 PM  #24
n5wd Just another B.A.R.   Joined: May 2007 Posts: 20	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: I don't see many pages about HOW teams go for the contest goals. Rocket designs, motor selections, strategies, etc. Not even post-facto from winners. Where's that? It may sound like a cop-out, but in our case (and probably for many other teams, as well) a web site is not a high enough priority during the school year, with everything else that is going on. Usually, the kids that are involved in TARC are your classic GT (Gifted and Talented) kids who are into several different activities and TARC winds up being just another activity that they happen to be doing. And while I would love to have the time to master a nice web site... We (I sponsor three teams at the school where I teach) are doing everything we can to document our rockets, launches, results, and adjustments, but it's not in a web-ready format - mayhaps over the summer there'll be some time to get something together for the web and get a framework together for next year. One of the suggestions most folks have, i.e. to use one of the blog-creator sites that are out there, would be useless for us - our district (as do others) blocks access to ALL blogs through the web-filtering software that every school that receives federal funding has to have in place. Blogs, regardless of their content, are verbotten unless we can justify to an associate superintendent that it's educationally appropriate and required, so most of us at my school at least don't even bother trying and look for other ways around the problem.

04-12-2008 09:33 PM  #25
UncleVanya   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 1907	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: That would make a great avatar... not for me, I couldn't pull that off. Maybe someone brave will do it. Or use it as their picture on Ourplanet!

04-12-2008 10:32 PM  #26
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2574	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: One of the suggestions most folks have, i.e. to use one of the blog-creator sites that are out there, would be useless for us - our district (as do others) blocks access to ALL blogs through the web-filtering software that every school that receives federal funding has to have in place. Blogs, regardless of their content, are verbotten unless we can justify to an associate superintendent that it's educationally appropriate and required, so most of us at my school at least don't even bother trying and look for other ways around the problem. Wayne, could you verify whether or not http://our.rocketryplanet.com is blocked by your school? That would be a good blog option that is directly tied to rocketry.

04-13-2008 01:14 AM  #27
UncleVanya   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 1907	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Wayne, could you verify whether or not http://our.rocketryplanet.com is blocked by your school? That would be a good blog option that is directly tied to rocketry. Since that is essentially a ning.com site it is fairly common to block it as a social networking site. I for one cannot reach it from work. So if I want to keep up with things over lunch I have to head out to a nearby eatery with wireless.

04-13-2008 12:18 PM  #28
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 732	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Special awards aside . . . . I was wondering if the lack of coverage on actual tactics was an effort to keep strategies secret, or a lack of being distracted from the goal, it seems the latter is the real deal. So what I would like to see is someone that does at TARC what I did at my contests and many others have done in the past at contest coverage, and do some real reporting. Go through flight cards of the top 20 contestants or so and see what strategies were used. Have correspondent(s) going around taking notes and photos of contestants then write an article about the event from the perspective of the contestants and their tactics. That's what is missing from TARC coverage in my view. That sort of article has the effect if viral marketing for prospective teams because they can see in real terms what is needed in terms of tasks and experiences to really get out there and do it. It would be really cool if TARC got so big they had to go regional to handle all the participation. Just Jerry

04-13-2008 01:53 PM  #29
tedcochran55409 NAR Trustee   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 46	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Go through flight cards of the top 20 contestants or so and see what strategies were used. Have correspondent(s) going around taking notes and photos of contestants then write an article about the event from the perspective of the contestants and their tactics. Every team and their rocket, plus competition shots. There's a pretty decent (if I may say so) Sport Rocketry article every year, too, that has many of those elements. But I think others have already said it--publicizing strategies and such is generally not a priority for the teams, either because they have too many other priorities or because they're too focused on building and flying.

04-14-2008 09:40 AM  #30
n5wd Just another B.A.R.   Joined: May 2007 Posts: 20	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Wayne, could you verify whether or not http://our.rocketryplanet.com is blocked by your school? That would be a good blog option that is directly tied to rocketry. The our.rocketryplanet.com site is not blocked by the district's filtering... probably because it doesn't have the string "blog" in the URL. Yep, that might be a workable site for us! Thanks. Wayne

04-14-2008 10:12 AM  #31
UncleVanya   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 1907	Re: Top 100 teams qualify for world’s largest rocket contest Quote: Since that is essentially a ning.com site it is fairly common to block it as a social networking site. I for one cannot reach it from work. So if I want to keep up with things over lunch I have to head out to a nearby eatery with wireless. Sweet... I had bookmarked the ourplanet site using the ning.com rather than rocketryplanet.com based url. When I changed I was able to get there from work. This will make it easier - I can eat lunch here and save the drive time and still take a look.

04-14-2008 11:18 AM  #32

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