FIVE budding young engineers from a Thornbury school have been lucky enough to meet astronaut Tim Peake after being invited to the Farnborough Air Show.

The group of girls, aged between 11 and 13, have been working over the past year with Airbus to complete an industrial cadets project, and were invited by the aerospace giant to attend the air show as VIPs, getting the chance to meet their hero in the process.

Along with the “out of this world” meeting with Major Peake, Cerys Dutfield, Holly Balding, Isabel McDade, Athena Khan and Niamh Walsh were able to check out all the attractions on offer, even getting a guided tour of the new A380 plane before it took part in the famous air display with the Red Arrows.

Niamh said: “There were a lot of people around Tim Peake when we saw him, but we managed to get close and speak to him, which was very, very cool.”

Cerys added: “I got the chance to tell him about my entry for the Blue Peter competition to design the logo for his mission, and he said that he had probably looked at my design when trying to decide the winner.”

Athena said: “When we got back to school, my friends didn’t believe me at first when I told them I met Tim Peake!”

“It was amazing to be a VIP, we got to see so much,” said Isabel.

“I really enjoyed seeing inside the A380 and all the equipment that they would take on it, there were so many wires.”

Having spent the day visiting the different stalls, watching the shows and collecting more freebies than their bags could hold, the girls said they felt more inspired than ever to pursue a career in science when they get older.

“We were really lucky to be there with Airbus, I would love to work for them some day,” said Holly.

She added: “I don’t think I would want to fly a plane myself though, I would rather just keep my feet on the ground.”