The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, played host to the finals of the Royal Air Force Engineering Competition and RAF Air Cadets from the Central and East Region were there to gather a generous share of the the Youth Awards
Scunthorpe Cadets present to the judges
Sixteen Youth teams from across the country that made the finals assembled at Duxford ready to present to their competition entries in front of panels of judges made up of senior Royal Air Force Engineering Officers, a Royal Air Force top apprentice and engineering directors, executives and high flying engineers from across the Defence Industry.
The teams had spent many months designing, building and fine tuning their engineering projects as well as honing their presentations in order that, on the day, a faultless delivery could be given to illuminate and impress the judging panel. In most cases the work was carried out during the squadron’s normal Parade window, two hours, two nights a week.
Although the Region’s cadets narrowly missed the overall Youth Team Prize, 105 (Cambourne) Squadron were declared the Runners Up with their presentation on the possibility of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Aircraft. Third spot was awarded to 119 (Scunthorpe) Squadron for their work on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Close Range Reconnaissance and they were closely pursued by Rugby’s 29F Squadron’s impressive Mission Simulator. 1985 (Flitwick) Squadron were voted winners of the Youth Teams’ Team Award, voted by the other competitors. Flitwick squadron actually had two teams in the final sixteen.
Cadet Sergeant Jess Hunt of the Scunthorpe squadron won the individual award for demonstrating the MBDA values of commitment, integrity, passion, innovation and team spirit. Jess received £100 of Amazon vouchers which were presented on behalf of the sponsor of this award, MBDA, by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier.
Opening addresses by Sir Stephen and, on behalf of the sponsors, Richard Daniel, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Raytheon UK, were fulsome in the praise of the entries which were all of an extremely high standard.
Flight Lieutenant James Todd, Officer Commanding 119 Squadron on hearing the news of his squadron’s success declared himself “Super proud of my cadets and staff”