Flying Start Challenge
Teacher Information

Outline

The Flying Start Challenge is a school competition run by businesses and organisations in the South West of England. Initiated by the Campaign to Promote Engineering, the Challenge is now entering its 8th year and still offers a great opportunity for schools to forge links with local industry.

The sponsors are: AgustaWestland, Airbus, Atkins, Fleet Air Arm Museum, GE Aviation, MBDA, Rolls-Royce and the West of England Aerospace forum.

The Challenge continues to grow throughout the region, and this year promises to be the biggest and best yet with more pupils involved than ever!


The Task

The Challenge is open to one class of Year 7-9 pupils per school, with the pupils expected to work in teams of 4. The task is:

'To design and build a hand-launched glider'

Support will be provided throughout the 8 - 12 week project by representatives from a local 'host' aerospace company. Three formal presentations are offered by these representatives, covering aspects of design, manufacture and test. In addition, information and advice will be available as required. A material pack will be made available to schools once the manufacturing phase begins.

A particular effort has been made this year to ensure that the Challenge is structured to support National Curriculum requirements for design and technology. See Key Stage 3 Curriculum Coverage. The Challenge is intentionally kept flexible to allow schools to tailor it to their individual needs. In previous years, the Challenge has been run successfully both as part of the Curriculum and as an extra-curricular activity.

Each team gets the chance to fly their glider at the 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.


Prizes

The winning team from each of the fly-offs secures places for their entire class at the Grand Final held at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. Here the regional winners compete against each other in a series of engineering challenges organised by the companies involved. The Final is hosted by a celebrity guest. Last year this was Wing Commander Mark Hunt, who presented the winning team with free glider flights and the winning school with a voucher for £1000 of technology equipment. Second place receives £200, third place £100.

Timetable

The glider design and build should take place over eight to twelve weeks from October to February, with the work on the Challenge usually taking place during design/technology lessons and/or after school clubs. Each school will have a 'host' company providing helpers and a main point-of-contact for the Challenge. The helpers will be introduced to the schools in the early autumn, when the level of support required and dates for school visits will be decided.

The gliders must be finished by February so that the best from each school may take part in the regional fly-off, which will be held one morning at a venue local to the school.

The class of the winning glider from each regional fly-off will then take part in the Grand Final at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton in the week preceding the Easter break.

Please note that should the school agree to take part in the Challenge, it is expected that the participating pupils will attend the regional fly-off and, if successful, the Grand Final.

Project Timeline

How to Take Part

To participate in this year's Flying Start Challenge please complete the Registration Form. We encourage you to return your registration form as soon as possible; the number of schools that can take part is limited, and places will be decided on a first-come-first-served basis.

If you have any queries then please don't hesitate to contact a member of the Flying Start Challenge Organising Team for more information; we look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

The Flying Start Challenge Team