Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Having fun building home-made helicopters!!!


Speaking of hobbies - some people collect stamps, others read books in their spare time, but Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, designs helicopters in his back yard! How? He takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts.
"It took me eight months to build this one," he said, as he filled the radiator of the banana yellow four-seater which he now parks in the grounds of his university.
The chopper is powered by a second-hand 133 horsepower Honda Civic car engine and kitted out with seats from an old Toyota saloon car. Its other parts come from the carcass of a Boeing 747 which crashed near Kano some years ago.
For a four-seater it is a big aircraft, measuring twelve metres (39 feet) long, seven metres high by five wide. A small screen on the dashboard connects to a camera underneath the helicopter for ground vision, a set of six buttons adjusts the screen's brightness while a small transmitter is used for communication. How to drive it? "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. The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rmp you press the joystick and it takes off," Abdullahi explained from the cockpit.
What is remarkable is that he learned the rudiments of flying a helicopter from the Internet and first got the idea of building one from the films he watches on television!!!!! Could you do something like that?

7 comments:

gabilu said...

Is he a genius? OMG!He knows how to build a "HELICOPTERS" just from TV. Indeed, I am so surprised that it really can work.Recently I also need a car due to bad wealther, maybe I can build a VW car by myself. But I am wondering the cost for building one car.

keizoKRKK said...

Is the helicopter really safe? I will never fly that helicopter. I have only one life. However, I admire his efforts.

Anonymous said...

Nice job!
Gabi

Anonymous said...

It's amazing,,, he is really geniun.not because he build a helicoper,but because he did something out of noting because he is not specialist in this feiled ,in addition he is not graduate yet. I would like to try this invention under one condition ,if it approved by safty requiremnets

nadera

jihee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jihee said...

I can't believe that!! Did he really make it by himself?! It is not just a hobby anymore. But..I don't want to ride it now^^; It looks not safe. If he creat more safe helicopters, ill take it!! If I have enough money...

Anonymous said...

Some people are crazy! genius but still crazy!

Pauline.