Conditions were on the breezy side for launching model rockets Thursday at Youngstown’s ball field, but area high school students enrolled in the Young Engineers program had the right stuff.

“The wind was a little bit challenging, but out of 28 launches, we only lost three rockets,” said Kennametal staffer Binky Sargent, coordinator for the educational program sponsored by the industrial tooling company with offices in Unity.

Now in its 12th year, the fall semester program provides students an insight into the opportunities available in engineering fields.

Derry Area and Mt. Pleasant Area students joined the program this year, along with those from previously participating Greater Latrobe and Greensburg Salem districts, for a combined enrollment of 49 students. Derry Area’s contingent wasn’t able to participate in the rocket launch because of a coronavirus-related closure of that district’s schools, but Sargent hoped to set up a separate launch date for those students.

The two models of rockets high school teams build from kits originally measure between 10 inches and 15 inches long, but the students are encouraged to modify them by extending or shortening the body or altering other components such as the nose cone and fins.

“The engineering challenge, as they change the length, is to move the weight around inside of the body,” Sargent explained. “They can pack it with clay or pennies.”

If the rocket’s weight isn’t properly balanced, it could tumble instead of maintaining a steady trajectory.

The rockets are designed to ascend between 300 and 400 feet. “There were a few spectacular launches where they got so high, we lost sight of them until they started to come down,” Sargent said.

According to Sargent, Jerry Andre, a retired engineer and Hempfield resident who is involved in model rocketry, serves as the program’s “rocket master.”

Greater Latrobe technology instructor Stanton Glamp said some of the Young Engineers participants use 3-D printers to create custom-designed parts for their rockets.

Students have to make calculations that take into account such factors as mass and acceleration. “They’re making changes and trying to do a little research into what creates a good, stable rocket,” he said.

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