PUPILS at Abbeyfield School were left flying high as they qualified for the national finals of the UK Youth Rocketry Challenge as they look to retain their crown from last year.

The team claimed the national title in 2016 and blasted through this year’s regional qualifiers which were held at Abbeyfield School on Saturday.

Launched in 2006, the annual competition is aimed at 11-18-year-olds from schools, colleges or youth groups whose goal is to design a rocket which can reach an altitude of 775 feet and return it to the ground within 44 seconds without damaging the payload – a raw egg.

“We’ve been entering the competition for the last seven years and last year was the school’s first victory in the national competition and we’ve been second and third before,” said Jon Pickering, physics teacher at Abbeyfield School.

“Obviously we’re hoping to retain our title and pupils in the rocket teams have gone on to become engineers and gone on to university.

“What’s important is the pupils who have been in the club what opportunities they get out of it.

“It’s a much harder challenge than what people think, and it goes to show at our regional final that only three teams out of eight managed to do two successful runs.

“Every year there’s a change in specification, you can’t use previous designs and we spend about five hours in the design and five hours in the making of it.

“The main part is the testing though as often it doesn’t always go to plan but that’s the fun part.”