Wildcat Rocket Engineering Club wins first place at launch competition
'Next year, we hope to be back with an even more capable and powerful rocket,' says Parker Haynes, WREC outreach manager, videographer and 2026 aerospace engineering alum (far right).
Students from the Wildcat Rocket Engineering Club (WREC) took home the first-place award at the 2026 FAR-OUT competition. College of Engineering students launched a liquid-fueled rocket, dubbed the Sonoran Wildcat, to an altitude of 4,150 feet on its first flight.
“Liquid rockets are highly complex, so it was very fascinating to see the designs that other teams came up with and nerd out over each other's work,” said WREC outreach manager Parker Haynes, a 2026 aerospace engineering alum.
The competition is hosted by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) organization in the Mojave Desert just north of Edwards Air Force Base. This year, a dozen teams from universities across the nation competed, as well as students from Mexico and Poland. In total, more than 200 students were present.
“We now have a team of over a dozen student rocket engineers with real flight experience eager to keep pushing our club's limits,” Haynes said. “Next year, we hope to be back with an even more capable and powerful rocket.”