FARNBOROUGH, England UK — A student rocket contest showdown is on tap during the Farnborough International Airshow, as the United States champion team takes on the winners from the United Kingdom in a final fly-off.

The 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge winners from Enloe High School in Raleigh, North Carolina will face off against the squad from Horsforth Secondary School in Yorkshire, England, which prevailed in the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge.

The teams will compete Friday for what has been dubbed the "Trans-Atlantic Trophy."

It is the first time the winners of the two contests will face each other in competition. The UKAYRoC champions have attended the last two TARC finals near Washington D.C. and launched exhibition rockets.

AIA member company Raytheon is funding the fly-off and paid for the U.S. team to attend the air show as part of Enloe's first-prize package.

TARC is sponsored by AIA and the National Association of Rocketry, along with about three dozen AIA member companies. UKAYRoC is organized by Tri Polus Ltd. and the UK Rocketry Association.

AIA president and CEO Marion Blakey said the Trans-Atlantic Trophy is a great way to further extend the reach of both rocket contests.

"This fly-off is an exciting way to build on the importance of TARC and UKAYRoC to the teams, their teachers and parents," Blakey said. "We expect this event to bolster the goal of both contests — attracting young people to careers in the aerospace industry."

TARC, in its sixth year, and UKAYRoC, in its second year, use identical judging criteria to crown their champions, who design and build the rockets by hand. The rules for the fly-off are the same — get as close to possible to 750 feet in altitude and 45 seconds in duration while returning two raw eggs to the ground unbroken. Each team will have two launches, with the best individual score counting.

The fly-off is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday, July 18, which is Youth Day at the show. The launches will occur at Rushmoor Arena, about one mile from the main airfield. Air traffic will be kept away from the site for a launch window of 30 minutes.

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.

Source: Aerospace Industries Association, http://www.aia-aerospace.org/

07-15-2008 10:59 PM  #1
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2815	Re: Rocket contest winners face off against UK champions How completely and utterly cool! Kudos to Raytheon.

07-16-2008 11:40 PM  #2
Jim Orner Low Power Flyer   Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 11	Re: Rocket contest winners face off against UK champions I agree. Excellent idea.

07-19-2008 03:08 AM  #3
n5wd NAR L1   Joined: May 2007 Posts: 35	Re: Rocket contest winners face off against UK champions The UKAYROC team was also given a trip to the United States, though I'm not sure who their sponsor was. They were parked right next to us at the TARC finals in Manassas, and were quite excited to be visiting the Washington DC area and to be able to fly their rocket in a demo flight at the contest. Definitely a bunch of neat kids! If Raytheon continues to offer their EU-airshow trip as a prize to the top TARC team, it'll be to the Paris Air Show!