Teams Will Meet in Fly-Off May 20
ARLINGTON, Va., April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The top 100 model rocket teams
in the country are aiming for a showdown next month after AIA announced the
finalists for the Team America Rocketry Challenge Friday.
The teams will face off on May 20 at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va.
for the title. A list of finalists for TARC -- the world's largest model
rocket contest -- is available at http://www.rocketcontest.org.
A total of 678 teams from 47 states and the District of Columbia took
part in the qualifying round of the competition. That represented close to
7,000 middle and high school students.
AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass said there is momentum gathering
in TARC, helping the core mission of attracting young people to aerospace
careers.
"We are already seeing some TARC alumni studying aerospace-related
subjects in college," Douglass said. "It looks like this year we have
another good group of students who hopefully will be our future engineers
and scientists."
This year's competition is a little more complicated than previous
editions. Students will be shooting for an altitude of 800 feet and an
exact flight time of 45 seconds -- the first time the contest has included
both elevation and duration criteria. The one-raw-egg payload must return
safely to the earth, and each flight receives a performance score based on
how close it came to the goals. Teams had until Monday to send in
preliminary qualifying scores for the final, which features schools from 32
states and Washington D.C.
AIA created the contest three years ago as a one-time event to mark the
100th anniversary of flight, but overwhelming interest turned it into an
annual event. The goal is to promote aerospace to students to attract more
young people to careers in the industry. The contest is also sponsored by
the National Association of Rocketry in partnership with NASA, the Defense
Department, the Civil Air Patrol, and 39 AIA member companies. The winning
teams share a prize pool of more than $60,000 in savings bonds and cash.
Raytheon, an AIA member company, sweetened the pot this year,
sponsoring a trip for members of the winning team to the Farnborough
International Airshow near London in July.
For more information about AIA's Team America Rocketry Challenge,
including details on how to sponsor a team and to apply for press
credentials to attend the finals, visit http://www.rocketcontest.org.
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
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Related links:
http://www.aia-aerospace.org
http://www.rocketcontest.org http://www.prnewswire.com
CONTACT:
Matt Grimison of Aerospace Industries
Association, +1-703-358-1076, cell: +1-571-217-0881,
matt.grimison@aia-aerospace.org
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