NEWARK, Ohio USA — Josh Robinson knew he wanted to go into aerospace aeronautics after college, but he never thought he would be able to build rockets before that.

Through an opportunity with the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Robinson, a 16-year-old home-schooler from Newark, will compete in May in the finals of the prestigious Team America Rocketry Challenge, the world's largest model rocket contest.

Josh Robinson, 16, is on a team from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton that is going to a national rocket competition in May. Photo: Eric George.

Robinson is part of a seven-member team comprised of teenagers from the Dayton and Cincinnati areas who call themselves the Titans. They designed, built and tested a rocket, named Falcon I, which is about 4 feet tall and weighs about 3 pounds.

Both the team and rocket names were chosen to reflect their Air Force ties. For the contest, the rocket had to fly for 45 seconds at a maximum of 750 feet, with a payload of two raw eggs, and successfully parachute the eggs back to the ground unbroken.
More than 6,000 students from 643 teams attempted to meet the contest's rigorous requirements, but only the top scoring 100 high school teams qualified to compete in the national contest, which will be May 17 in The Plains, Va.

The top 10 teams will share a pool of $60,000 for scholarships and other prizes, and the winning team will get a free, overseas trip to the Farnborough International Air Show near London in July.

"I wanted to apply because this is the career field I am planning on going into," Robinson said. "I really enjoyed this, and I had a lot of fun."

To participate with this team required Robinson travel to the Dayton almost every weekend, said his father, Alan Robinson.

The team members were selected on their math and other science abilities. Josh Robinson is the only one selected from Licking County. Five of the students are home-schooled and two are in public school.

"The boys work so well together. They have all taken part in the design and building of this rocket," Alan Robinson said. "They were not allowed to have help from adults. This was very hard for me, so I walked around the museum, a lot."

Josh Robinson is helping build a second rocket that will be used as a backup at the national flyoff.

"We've learned that rockets don't like car doors," Josh Robinson said.

Cindy Henry, museum aerospace educator, was the team supervisor for the Titans.

"I can think of no better way to interest students in the core subjects of science, technology, engineering and math than to teach rocketry," Henry said. "It draws from all of these key areas in a way that excites and involved the students in a fun, hands-on process. I am very proud of the team and am looking forward to seeing them compete in the final flyoff."

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