Schools Fly High With Bombardier

School children from across Northern Ireland reached for the sky today at the final of Bombardier’s Flight Experience Challenge in W5, the Odyssey Complex, Belfast.

The competition challenged pupils of all ages to design, build and fly a self-propelled model aircraft. Encouraged to use recyclable, everyday objects, children constructed aircraft from a wide range of materials including balsa wood, paper clips, lollipop sticks and elastic bands. In addition to design and construction, they were also judged on flight and livery. The standard of entries in each category was high, but the judging panel, comprising Bombardier manufacturing and materials engineers, selected the following winners:

Key Stage 2 St. Colmcille’s Primary School, Ballymena
Key Stage 3 St. Patrick’s High School, Keady
Key Stage 4/5 Glengormley High School, Newtownabbey
Special School Fleming Fulton School, Belfast

The winning teams will spend an action-packed day in British Airways’ pilot and crew training facility at Heathrow Airport. Opportunities to operate a flight simulator, take part in cabin crew training and tour the engineering works, where aircraft are serviced, are all part of the prize. Each winning team will also receive £1,000 for their school.

Congratulating all entrants, Gavin Campbell, Director, Design Engineering and Technology Development, Bombardier, said: “Today was an excellent illustration of industry and education working in partnership. These young people’s creative abilities clearly demonstrate their potential to become tomorrow’s innovators. We hope they have been inspired to consider aerospace as a future career.”

The Flight Experience Challenge is linked to Bombardier’s extensive educational outreach programme, which includes sponsored displays at W5 Science and Discovery Centre, Belfast, the X2 Flight Experience Exhibit at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra and the Flight Experience CD-ROM, which uses the principles of flight and aerospace related topics to teach many aspects of the school curriculum.