A GROUP of budding aero-engineers are proving high fliers in the model plane world.

The six-strong team from St Leonard's School, Durham, are following in the spirit of flight innovators, Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Sisters Elizabeth and Hazel Creaghan, Corey Evans, Ross Clark, Thomas Carter and Robert Stobbart beat off the challenge of more than 1,000 competitors, aged seven to 16, from schools across the country to scoop the top accolades in the Wright Challenge national final.

Contestants were challenged to design, build and fly a hand-launched glider, a rubber-powered helicopter and a model aircraft, or dart.

All made from balsa wood, they are either hand launched or propelled by an elastic band, with the aim of staying in the air the longest.

St Leonard's had won one of the categories the previous year and travelled to RAF Cosford hoping to enjoy similar success.

But they almost swept the board, winning gold in two of the three categories, and taking ten of the 12 first places and one second.

Technology teacher Kevin Creaghan, father of Elizabeth and Hazel, said the team had not dared hope for such a haul of medals.

"The organisers said we would need a wheelbarrow to take all the awards away.

"I'm pleased we didn't quite win everything, because it would have dispirited the other teams and given us a hard standard to live up to next year."

He was joined at RAF Cosford by colleagues Ian Stonehouse and Stuart Shorthouse, who help him run the weekly after-school model aircraft club.