News Rocket Team Takes Off! 20.05.2026

Collyer’s Rocketry team has been enjoying success at the UK Rocketry Challenge, organised by UKROC26 at Stow Maries Aerodrome in Chelmsford.

The student teams were challenged to design, build and test a rocket, without any staff help, with the requirement that it reach 750 feet with a flight time of 36-39 seconds. The rockets were required to carry a “payload” of an uncooked egg, which had to be completely intact on landing back down to earth.

Amarjit Chana, Collyer’s Head of Engineering, said: “The students competed independently and beat 19 other teams from schools and colleges in the South East to achieve an exceptionally good winning score. This qualified them to take part in the national finals near Leicester in June, which is a tremendous achievement.”

The Collyer’s team comprised: Armin Merati, Ben Watson, Dylan Espley, Maalik Darr, and Toby Betts.

Collyer’s Head of Maths, Joel Hofmann said: “We were incredibly impressed with the students hard work, commitment and ingenuity in designing and building their rocket, without any help. Even on the day they were using local weather conditions in their computer simulation to make small last minute changes to their design.”

Amarjit Chana added: “The students not only demonstrated excellent technical expertise, but also showed great teamworking ability, as well as good sportsmanship, proactively talking to other teams and even offering advice, suggestions and lending tools to other participants.”

Collyer’s Deputy Principal Steve Martell said: “Huge thanks to Amarjit and Joel for all of their support. Armin, Ben, Dylan, Maalik and Toby are rocket stars!”