MADISON, Ohio USA — Two intact eggs. Three young scientists. Seven-hundred-fifty feet. Forty-five seconds.

The perfect combination of these four elements Saturday could mean thousands of dollars for Madison High School students Rachel Curran, Jaclyn Curran and Kyle Coxe.

The trick will be combining them in a single flight of a homemade rocket at the national Team America Rocketry Challenge in Manassas, Va.

Mark Fickenscher, a chemistry teacher at Madison High, said this year's objective is to carry two raw eggs into the air as close to 750 feet as possible, then keep them aloft for 45 seconds.

"You've got a dual engineering problem there," he said. "But they're really pulling it together. They flew (Tuesday) and had some great flights. I think we're ready to go."

Rachel, the senior team manager and two-time qualifier who plans to study pharmacy after graduation, Jaclyn, her sophomore sister, and Kyle, a sophomore, designed their rocket after previous models from the school, which has qualified for nationals three years in a row.

"And we've only been trying for three years, so we're a dream team," Fickenscher quipped.

An electronic altimeter rides each ship to measure how high it flies; stopwatches keep time.

The propelled craft can't weigh more than a pound, so Fickenscher said the latest rule book is pushing it by requiring two eggs, not just one, at 60 grams each.

New rules also require the top 18 finalists to fly a second time and average their flights; and double the penalty when rockets fall too quickly.

"When we qualified the rocket, we hit the exact height, but our shoot was a little too quick," Fickenscher said of the team's April 6 qualifier. "When you think about trying to take a device and shooting it up with an engine built by (an outside source), and then hoping the wind stays the same, there's a little bit of luck and a little bit of ingenuity involved."

The Team America Rocketry Challenge began in 2002 as a one-time celebration of the Centennial of Flight, but went too well not to continue. It is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry.

Among this year's national competitors are seven Ohio teams and 93 other entries from students in seventh through 12th grades.
Last year, Rachel's team placed seventh and won $4,000; the year before, two Madison teams battled pesky winds to place among the top 50, Fickenscher said.

Copyright © 2008, The News-Herald.