The 2023 FAI World Championships for Space Models in Austin, Texas, USA, has been concluded with all category winners now announced:

• Altitude (S1A and S1B)
• Radio Control Rocket Glider (S8D and S8P)
• Scale (S7)
• Scale Altitude (S5B and S5C)
• Precision Payload S2/P

Find out about the details for each class
See photos from the contest

Blast off for Team USA

Altitude (S1A single stage for Juniors, S1B two stage for Seniors)

In the S1B senior category, the USA took gold for the seniors, followed by Romania and Slovakia. For the individual medals, Italy’s Antonio Mazzaracchio was well in the lead with 541 for his best flight, ahead of USA’s Steve Kristal and Oleksandr Radchenko.

For the S1A juniors, it was Ukraine in first place, then the People’s Republic of China and USA. Congratulations to Sofiia Fisun who took a gold individual.

Radio Control Rocket Glider S8D and S8P

It was a clear win for the People’s Republic of China in the junior radio control rocket glider flights, with the top three individuals from the team: Bolun Zhang, Yichen Sheng and HangJing Hu. The teams silver was won by Latvia, with USA in bronze position.

Among the seniors, Latvia took gold, with USA in silver and the People’s Republic of China in bronze. Yet it was Stoil Avramov of USA who took gold in the individuals overall, followed by Maris Juris Brakovskis, Latvia, and Yichen Sheng of the People’s Republic of China. Two female entrants participated: Karina Limora of Latvia came top with Tracy Pund in second place.

Scale (S7)

On Thursday it was the Scale contest, in which models must be precise replicas and mechanically complex enough to perform “special effects” during flight to score high flight points.

For the Juniors, the teams was won by Romania, then Poland in 2nd and USA 3rd. Poland’s Jakub Żyła took gold with a Rubis, followed by three Arianes (two 44LPs and a 3) from the Romanian team who scored strongly for workmanship and degree of difficulty.

The seniors category was won by USA, and the strong Romanian team took second, followed by Ukraine. There was a gold for Christopher Flanigan whose PSLV scored highly across the board. Serhiy Trush UKR took silver with a Trailblazer II. Michał Filas took a bronze place with a Sonda, ahead of Romania’s Gabriel Ciprian Ene whose high scoring Saturn 1B didn’t perform well in flight. The first female, Campbell Duffy of USA, came 7th overall.

Scale Altitude (S5B for Juniors, S5C for Seniors)

Ukraine took a gold for the juniors, thanks to their team mate Ivan Kyriienko who scored well for workmanship and in the flights for his Eridan. Madelyn Stokker of USA took silver with a Blank Brant IV, followed by Romania’s Andra Ileana Mihailescu’s Lambda L-4S.

For the seniors, Slovakia’s Michal Žitňan took a gold, scoring highly for his TT-500-A’s best flight. His team mate Roman Čižnár took silver with a Matterhorn, and James Filler of USA took bronze. Slovakia were awarded team champions overall, followed by USA and Poland. Ema Čižnárová of Slovakia was top female in this category in which five women participated.  

Precision Payload (S2/P)

On Friday competitors collected their ‘fragile payload’ (an egg) and headed to the contest site. The Junior round was hotly contested between Great Britain and the USA. The British team pipped the Americans to the post in the teams, although USA’s Aaryan Nagarkatti took a gold for individual. Silver place was a close run, with Edward Melville of the British team narrowly beating USA’s Lauren Houts.

In the seniors, USA gained the team gold, followed by Canada and Great Britain, although it was Ukraine’s Oleksandr Radchenko who gained the first place in individuals, just ahead of Canada’s Taras Tataryn. Not far behind was USA’s Alan Stokker.

Awards Ceremonies

• Wednesday: S3 Senior, S4 Junior, S6 Senior, S9 Junior, S4 Senior, S3 Junior, S9 Senior, S6 Junior
• Thursday: S1A Junior, S8E/P Senior, S8D Junior, S1B Senior
• Friday: S7 Senior, S7 Junior, S5C Senior, S5B Junior, S2/P Senior

The Closing Ceremony also took place on Friday.

Images: Photo credits: Antonis Papadopoulos, FAI Aeromodelling Commission (CIAM) President and Jury Member