A SCHOOLBOY has completed an amazing engineering prize double for his family after beating 900 rivals from across the world in a contest to design a rocket to the moon.

Max Bentley, 12, has also earned the backing of British astronaut Tim Peake for ‘Revelation’, his rocket which won the Airbus international competition.

Max’s success follows that of his brother, Sam, 17, who last year beat several thousands fellow hopefuls to win the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

The Ysgol Glan Clwyd pupil, who lives in Glan y Gors, Prestatyn with mum and dad, Jackie and Jonathan, sisters Elizabeth and Emily and brother Sam, said: “It has been an amazing experience!

“I am so proud to have won the competition and I would like to thank Airbus for the opportunity. I’m excited for the future.”

His dad said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic. I couldn’t be any prouder as a father and my children never cease to amaze me.

“Every summer, we try and fill a scrapbook as a family and this year’s theme was creativity so we did a lot of art, cooking and we made some bird boxes and I think Max’s entry stemmed from that.

“But I’m not really into IT or engineering, so that’s not a family affair at all – it’s quite unexpected that they’ve both been so successful at design.”

Max discovered the competition – organised by the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space in partnership with US software giant Autodesk – when his brother was browsing the Airbus website for an apprenticeship opportunity.

The Airbus Foundation challenges entrants to design a rocket to the moon with plenty of cargo and able to blast out of earth’s atmosphere with at least two people, plus food and supplies to refill a moon base and its machines.

‘Revelation’ was inspired by successful Russian and American designs and was created using Autodesk’s 3D design software – an industry grade tool – which Max had to learn from scratch specifically for the competition.

His dad added: ”It wasn’t a ‘pen and ink’ job.

“Max had to learn a whole new thing, but he was really just having a go with Autodesk when he put his design together. As for the name – he flicked through a thesaurus and ‘Revelation’ just jumped out at him.”

Max’s achievement also earned a 3D printer for his school and a special assembly was held with Emily Merrison, head of education liaison UK at Airbus and Ann Jones, AM for the Vale of Clwyd.

Ysgol Glan Clwyd headteacher Bethan Cartwright said “As a school, we are extremely proud of Max’s success and very grateful to him and Airbus for the prize.”

Mrs Jones said: “It was great to join Max and year eight

“That Max came first in over 900 entries from across the globe is a tribute to him, his family and also for the school.”

Meanwhile, a tweet from Ysgol Glan Clwyd reached International Space Station crew member Peake, who responded to the school’s question “Would you fancy a space adventure in Max’s rocket?” with a simple “I’m in”.

The design will be featured in the magazine Airbuzz, which is read by more than 75,000 Airbus employees across the globe.

Multi-talented Max has recently been accepted into the Prestatyn Town FC Academy, following in the footsteps of sister Emily, who at 15 is one of the youngest girls to play in the Welsh Premier Women’s Football League, at Wrexham.

Max hopes to pursue his interest in art and Design by studying subjects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

A spokesman for Airbus said: “On behalf of Airbus and Emily Merrison, we would like to congratulate Max on his outstanding achievement. We encourage Max to continue to develop his skills in science and technology and hope to see him again as a future engineer at Airbus one day.”