BAGPUSH
Author: Tony Hinton
Date: 17th June 2004
As you may have heard a team of three members of Peebles High School Young Engineers Club entered a competition to design a piece of equipment for baggage handling. They sent in their design affectionately known as Bagpush. A few weeks later they got a call from the BAA who were hosting the competition, they were told they were in the final, which was to take place in Heathrow airport.
After a few weeks of preparation, building a model and creating a PowerPoint presentation they were off to Great Britain’s capital. On a Thursday night after school, Tony Hinton, Michael Rutherford, Roderick (“Roddy”) MacFarlane and Mrs K. Hill their teacher left for Edinburgh Airport to catch the late shuttle.
The team had trouble getting the motor for the model of Bagpush through security, as it was mistaken for an Uzi machine gun! But at least we know security is doing a good job!
Landing after ten o’clock the team was taken to a small hotel on the outskirts of Heathrow to stay the night. After a good night sleep and a hurried breakfast the team left for the visitors centre at Heathrow airport. After a 10 minute introduction by the staff of the BAA and Young Engineers, and a small tour of the museum the team set up the model at a stall so the judges could see it and examine how it worked.
Through out the day they viewed other teams presentations and before lunch were given an exclusive tour of the terminal 5 building site.
After lunch the team had to give their presentation, which had to last 8 whole minutes, the presentation had just fewer than forty slides! After that they had to give the judges time to decide, so the teams took a “small” break.
The team came third overall and received a special prize. They were the only Scottish team at the challenge and returned home on the Saturday night.
The team would like to thank all of the staff at the BAA and the Young Engineers club as well as British airways that provided excellent service. They would also like to thank Dr. and Mrs Hill for their help through out the challenge.
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