Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi, a 24-year-old Nigerian physics undergraduate, is building functional helicopters from junk cars and motorcycles. This one, powered by a Honda Civic engine, has been flown “briefly” six times, never higher than seven feet. Many of the other parts from a Boeing 747 which crashed near him home years ago.
“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.
Home-made helicopters hit northern Nigeria [Yahoo/AFP via Gizmodo via The Raw Feed]
“nad”? “can”? Joel, are you blogging drunk again?
If only! Unfortunately, transpositions are a real problem for me in both writing and proof-readering, even when stone sober. I usually catch them in the proof, but not always, obviously!
The last sentence in the first paragraph of the summary is incomplete. Interesting story though.