A 24-year-old undergraduate from Nigeria is building
helicopters out of old car and bike parts. Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi, a
physics student, spent eight months building the yellow model seen here, using
the money he makes from repairing cellphones and computers. While some of the
parts have been sourced from a crashed 747, the chopper contains all sorts of
surprises.
The 12-meter-long aircraft, which has never flown above a
height of seven feet, is powered by a secondhand 133 horsepower engine from a
Honda Civic. In the basic cockpit there are two Toyota car seats, with a couple
more in the cabin behind. Controls are simple, with an ignition button, an
accelerator lever to control vertical thrust and a joystick that provides
balance and bearing. A camera beneath the chopper connected to a small screen
on the dash gives the pilot ground vision, and he communicates via a small
transmitter.
Mubarak says he learned the basics of helicopter flying
through the internet after he decided it would be easier to build a chopper
than a car. Flying his creation is easy, he claims. “You start it, allow it to
run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the
propeller on top begins to spin,” he explains. “The further you shift the
accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you press the
joystick and it takes off.”
Undeterred that his home-made transporter, which lives in a
hangar on campus, lacks the gear to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and
humidity, Mubarak is working on a new machine which “will be a radical
improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics.”
A two-seater with the ability to fly at 15 feet for three
hours at a time, Mubarak’s new creation will be powered by a brand-new motor
straight from Taiwan, normally found in motorbikes.
Bravo Mubarak!!!! More grease to your elbow.
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