Local schoolchildren have reached for the sky as part of an annual competition in Llanbedr.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ UAS Challenge returned to the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre in Llanbedr for their annual competition, with local school pupils invited to take part.

University teams from across the world, who had spent the last year designing and building drones to meet a specific brief, came together to test their creations by taking part in a series of challenges.

Pupils from Ysgol Llanbedr, along with children from Ysgol y Moelwyn, Ysgol Ardudwy and Ysgol Bro Idris, were invited to the aerospace centre over the two days to take part in different activities to inspire and promote educational and career opportunities available in aerospace engineering. Activities included making balloon airships, experimenting with model aeroplanes, “flying” a virtual reality aeroplane and building working lighthouses out of paper. They were also given the opportunity to speak to the teams and ask questions about the different drone designs.

The winners of an Air Adventures art and design competition, in which children were asked to design an aircraft that could tackle a humanitarian crisis, were also invited to the event to receive their prizes and certificates.

This year’s UAS Challenge attracted teams from universities from as far as Denmark, Pakistan and the Netherlands who came to compete with their drones. The competition was won by team AirWorks Beta from the Pakistan National University of Sciences and Technology.

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