THE controversial decision to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport has left many people wishing another option could be found.

A team of pupils from Abingdon School are hoping they can provide just that with a proposal to link London's five airports.

The boys are competing in the BlottMatthews Airport to Airport engineering challenge, which comes with a prize fund of £5,000.

Their goal is to come up with a way to create a high-speed transport link between Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City airports.

The journey between any two of the airports should not take more than 20 minutes.

Physics teacher Jeremy Thomas said it was a chance for the boys to develop skills crucial to a future career in engineering.

He said: "It is a fantastic opportunity. People who go on to work in engineering in particular need to have teamwork and presentation skills.

"The teams put together a presentation electronically and then the judges look at it.

"In April the boys will go to present to a sort of Dragon's Den type of panel and they have to convince them their idea would work.

"That process is really useful, if you become an engineer it is no good having an idea if you do not get the contract in the first place."

The BlottMatthews Challenge is in its second year, having launched in Hampshire in 2015 with a challenge to design a mission to Mars.

It is the brainchild of professional engineers Richard Blott and Charles Matthews, who sponsor it with the co-operation of the charity Young Engineers in the hope of encouraging more young people to pursue a career in the discipline.

Pupils are expected to apply key engineering disciplines such as researching ground-breaking ideas, testing technical feasibility by examination and calculation and organising themselves to manage a demanding project successfully.

Abingdon School sixth-former Patrick McCubbin said: "It has been hugely engaging and important to spend time working as a team on the project.

"My role has been to help work on the route and integrate it with existing transport networks – something which I found had applications across many disciplines, for example networks are also important in the biological sciences."

The team recently made an internal presentation to the school's heads of physics, design and technology and economics.

Winners will be announced after the presentation day in April.

Tom Shaw, who is also on the Abingdon School team, said: "Taking part in this challenge is a great opportunity for me to get experience of team work and project planning which will help my future plans to study biomedical engineering at university."