BAE Systems Challenge Winners

On May 23rd six students: Atheer Musa 10NM (Brunel), Harry Longmore 10NM (Brunel), Isabel Stanley 10EL (Wellington), Luke Larkin 10LS (Brunel), Grace Mayhew 10XC( Austin) and Chloe Stevens 10XC (Austin), went to BAE systems, Farnborough to compete against 15 other schools in a competition.

On their return to school the students wrote the following report about the competition:

Before the event took place we were given clues as to what the task would be, and from that we realised it would be an amphibious vehicle (a vehicle that could travel on a land course and swim in water). Mr Campbell who recruited us asked us to investigate different motors, wiring and switching methods, mechanisms and maritime vehicles. Luckily quite a few of us do Electronics at GCSE level. We then spent an after-school session to help us form a strategy using tips that we could find from resources. When we arrived, we were given more of an insight into the task and the equipment that we needed to complete it (such as motors, switches and plastics). We worked as a team, playing to our strengths, to build a remote control vehicle that could drive on land and move in the water. We had around four hours to design and make our vehicle. We were then timed to move the vehicle along an assault course, down a ramp into the water, and drive it to the end of the water. We successfully drove the vehicle around the two courses with times of 38 seconds and 24 seconds. With this in hand we successfully won the Best Overall Performance Award and received a painting of a maritime boat and a wonderful trophy which has a scale model of a Euro fighter aircraft on top of it. As an extra prize we were also given tickets for the Farnborough air show. We are allowed to keep the trophy for one year and it will be displayed in pride of place in a cabinet in the schools reception, the painting will find a home in the Design Technology area with other ones won in past years. We would like to thank the school and the teachers who gave us the opportunity to take part in this event.

BAE Trophy	BAE Prize Picture
Prize Winning Vehicle	Prize Winning Team