2010's Amazing Team America Event Is Due To Give Way To 2011's Rendition This May 14, 2011

It was one of Aero-TV's favorite shoots from 2010... The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is an aerospace design and engineering event for teams of US secondary school students (7th through 12th grades) run by the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Teams can be sponsored by schools or by non-profit youth organizations such as Scouts, 4-H, or Civil Air Patrol (but not the NAR or other rocketry organizations).

The goal of TARC is to motivate students to pursue aerospace as an exciting career field, and it is co-sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, 4-H, the Department of Defense, and NASA. The event involves designing and building a model rocket (2.2 pounds or less, using NAR-certified model rocket motors) that carries a payload of 1 Grade A Large egg for a flight duration of 40 - 45 seconds, and to an altitude of exactly 750 feet (measured by an onboard altimeter), and that then returns the egg to earth uncracked using only a 15-inch parachute as a recovery device. Onboard timers are allowed; radio-control and pyrotechnic charges are not.

The first eight Team America Rocketry Challenges, held in 2003 through 2010, were the largest model rocket contests ever held. Co-sponsored by the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the eight events together attracted about 5,800 high-school teams made up of a total of over 55,000 students from all 50 states.

These students had a serious interest in learning about aerospace design and engineering through model rocketry. The top 100 teams each year came to a final fly-off competition in late May near Washington, DC, to compete for $60,000 in prizes and a free trip to a major air show in Europe. These teams were selected based on the scores reported from qualification flights that they conducted locally throughout the US.

Team America Rocketry Challenge 2011's target flight duration of 40-45 seconds is measured from the moment of rocket liftoff until the egg payload lands. The target flight altitude of 750 feet is measured by an onboard electronic altimeter. The top 100 teams from among all those who have entered will meet in a final fly-off competition on May 14, 2011 at Great Meadow, The Plains, VA. These top 100 teams will be selected based on the duration and altitude scores reported from local qualification flights that they conduct in front of an NAR Senior (adult) member observer at their choice of time up until the flight deadline of April 4, 2011.

Join Aero-TV and NAR's John Langford as we look back again at the truly inspiring 2010 event.

FMI: www.rocketcontest.org, www.nar.org, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews