HIGH-FLYING students at a Middlesbrough school have won the trip of a lifetime thanks to their space-age inventions.

Six teams of gifted and talented pupils from Keldholme School have spent the past few months researching, designing, building and marketing 18 electronically controlled rockets.

Two winning teams will visit the Kennedy Space Center, in the US, next month, accompanied by members of Teesside Young Engineers, who have been guiding them through the project.

Youngsters aged between 11 and 16 created the rockets, which are up to 6ft long, powered by two motors and can climb up to 2,000ft.

Richard Carr, Excellence In Cities co-ordinator, at Keldholme School, said they worked hard out of school hours. "It was a marvellous experience for them. They really developed exceptional team work skills."

Both Keldholme and its neighbouring school, Langbaurgh, are due to close in July and pupils will transfer to the new Unity City Academy.

Richard Jenner, Unity City Academy project director, said: "The enthusiasm, enterprise and innovation shown by these students are excellent examples of the great achievements being seen already. We want to build on that success at Unity."