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Home-made helicopters in Nigeria

KANO (AFP) - Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, 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, sweat pouring from his forehead as he filled the radiator of the banana yellow four-seater which he now parks in the grounds of his university.
The chopper, which has flown briefly on six occasions, is made from scrap aluminium that Abdullahi bought with the money he makes from computer and mobile phone repairs, and a donation from his father, who teaches at Kano's Bayero university.
It 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. It has never attained an altitude of more than seven feet.
The cockpit consists of a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrust, a joystick that provides balance and bearing.
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.
"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.
He said 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.
"I watched action movies a lot and I was fascinated by the way choppers fly. I decided it would be easier to build one than to build a car," he said pacing the premises of the security division of the university which he uses as hanger for his helicopter.
He hoped -- and still does hope -- that the Nigerian government and his wealthy compatriots would turn to him and stop placing orders with western manufacturers.
So far, however, government response to his chopper project has been underwhelming to say the least.
Although some government officials got very excited when they saw him conduct a demonstration flight in neighbouring Katsina state, Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has so far shown no interest in his aircraft.
"No one from the NCAA has come to see what I've done. We don't reward talent in this country," he lamented.
Abdullahi does admit that his first helicopter lacks "some basic facilities like devices for measuring atmospheric pressure, altitude, humidity and the like."
In a country with Nigeria's abysmal air safety record officials may be loath to gamble on one student's home-made helicopter.
But Abdullahi, undeterred, has started work on a new flying machine, which, he says, "will be a radical improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics."
Currently just a spindly metal frame in the back yard, the helicopter will be a two-seater and Abdullahi calculates it will be able to fly at an altitude of 15 feet for three hours at a stretch.
It will be powered by a brand new motor -- albeit Taiwan-manufactured and destined for the Jincheng motorbike so common on the streets of Kano.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/nigeriahelicopteroffbeat;_ylt=AsIVmuqaLsBZ9aRS3syKSG0DW7oF

Good job. I love to see that good things are happening in Nigeria

Fly at an altitude of 15 feet! That's bloody dangerous!

We're talking tree / rooftops of bungalows!

That's without thinking in terms of tall buildings.

WE should commend the guy, but to be frank there are thousands of ways to build things better than this which we better and take less time and money.

It may be that we can start learning in bulding by assemblying as we now do in cars etc and take it from there.

For me, there are basic things that need addressing first before we start 'buiding' helicopters as I will like us to build a basic car first and all other basic things.

I still continue to say it we have failed government who has not been able to tap into our multitude of human resources.

May God be with us.

That is wonderful, this is a great news that in Nigeria we can make such, i am happy to hear this.
To the guy, keep it up.
To the govt, please support this guy.

Aeronautics is NOT an easy field to dabble with. 15ft with his funding and capital is a huge progress and not a tale. If you understand an iota of aerospace and aeronautics, you'd applaude him.

chei see what bad government can cause? Other countries are looking for how to make Take over Mars and Jupiter and are building war heads and cloning human organs and we are here jubilating over a helicopter that the one crudely made by the wright brothers years ago beat hands down.Dont get me wrong o I am happy for the builder and his achievements but please let this not go to international news that Nigeria thinks she has achieved great thing cos one of her people built a helicopter that cant properly fly them go laugh us tire o to them this is project for their high school children.

hannydarl:

chei see what bad government can cause? Other countries are looking for how to make Take over Mars and Jupiter and are building war heads and cloning human organs and we are here jubilating over a helicopter that the one crudely made by the wright brothers years ago beat hands down.Dont get me wrong o I am happy for the builder and his achievements but please let this not go to international news that Nigeria thinks she has achieved great thing cos one of her people built a helicopter that cant properly fly them go laugh us tire o to them this is project for their high school children.

dies

@ plat

Goodmorning and have a nice day today

^ Same to you sweetie