Flying Start Challenge
The Flying Start Challenge is a contest run by Aerospace businesses and organisations in the South West of England for local secondary schools to help develop science and engineering skills whilst highlighting the opportunities available in a career in engineering. Initiated by the Campaign to Promote Engineering, the Challenge is now entering its 12th year and still offers a great opportunity for schools to forge links with local industry.
The sponsors are: Agusta Westland, Airbus, Atkins, Fleet Air Arm Museum, GKN Aerospace, BAE, MBDA, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and Rolls-Royce.
The Challenge is open to pupils in Years 7 to 9 who are organised into teams of 4 with the aim of "designing and building a hand-launched glider made from sustainable materials". Each team is supported by graduates, apprentices and trainees from the sponsor companies, with lessons on design, manufacture and testing, in addition to some practical advice on their glider designs.
Each team gets the chance to fly their glider at a Regional Fly-off. Teams will be judged on the distance flown, and also on a poster presentation detailing the design decisions made. Regional Fly-offs are held in Cheltenham, Bristol and Yeovil.
The winning teams from the Regional Fly-Off progress to the Grand Final held at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. The teams take part in a series of engineering challenges organised by the companies involved and compete to be named the best team. The winning team receive free glider flights with the winning school awarded a voucher for £1000 of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) equipment. Second place receives £500, third place £250.