Well, An Aspiring One Anyway

The sounds of rockets sizzling through the sky mixed with the cheering of hundreds of kids Saturday as 100 high school teams from around the country competed for cash prizes and, more importantly, recognition as winners of the nation's most challenging model rocket contest.

At the end of the day, the team representing Boonsboro High School from Boonsboro (MD) claimed the honor of a perfect score of 1500 feet - sharing a $59,000 prize pool with four other top ranking high school teams from across the nation: Washington International School from Washington (DC), Vail Christian High School from Edwards (CO), Manlius Pebble Hill School in DeWitt (NY), and Waccamaw High School from Pawleys Island (SC). US Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), National Aeronautics and Space Administrator Sean O'Keefe, Author Homer Hickam, Marshall Space Flight Center Director Art Stephenson, National Air and Space Museum Director Jack Dailey and NASA astronaut Jay Apt were among the dignitaries presenting awards to the top five teams.

Stiff Competition

About 750 students from 100 high schools brought their custom designed model rockets to Great Meadow in The Plains (VA), having qualified through regional fly-offs against nearly 800 other teams around the country in the last few months. The contest requirements were tough: Students had to build a two-stage rocket that could fly to an altitude of 1,500 feet-no more, no less-release a payload of two raw eggs, and parachute the eggs back to the ground unbroken.

The top 100 teams came from 36 states across the nation, including the District of Columbia. Many of the teams' travel expenses were paid for by AIA member companies and other companies from their home towns.

Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry, the contest was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight, and to encourage interest in aerospace design and engineering among high school students. AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass said, "Everyone's been saying that kids today aren't interested in space, but we found that quite the contrary, kids are just as interested in space today as they were 30 years ago. We started this contest as a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight and were overwhelmed with the response we received from students all over the country. We hope the young people here today have discovered how fascinating science is and decide to study aerospace fields when they go to college. That will be the ultimate measure of the value of this contest."

FMI: www.aia-aerospace.org, http://www.rocketcontest.org