Culdrose engineers help Cornish school children design model racing cars

Cornish school children recently spent the day at Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Culdrose designing, building and racing model cars.

This was the regional final for ‘Race for the Line’. Previously, Royal Navy Engineers had worked in several schools in the county, passing on their knowledge and mentoring students to help them build the fastest car possible.

Preliminary racing took place across the county, with the winners of the regional races spending the day at Culdrose.

Here they fine-tuned their designs with the assistance of their Royal Navy mentors, to enable the cars to go even faster.

The winners from Redruth School will represent Cornwall in the national ‘Race for the Line’ final, to be held at RAF Wittering on 28 June.

The purpose of the event is to encourage young people to look at engineering in a different light and possibly for them to consider a career in this field. It also encourages team work and creativity.

Students from Redruth said, “We really enjoyed the whole process, yes winning was great, but I find design very interesting. It is great to get out of the classroom and put into practice our ideas. The Navy engineers have been really helpful and are great fun.”

Petty Officer Neville Distin, was one of the organisers and mentors, “I love teaching engineering and working with the young people. They are very keen and enthusiastic. Hopefully this will inspire some to look at engineering careers, either in the military or elsewhere. It is a very rewarding job.”