24 Year Old Nigeria Boy Builds Helicopter From Scrap

A 24 year old Nigerian boy, Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi, is reported to have built a working helicopter from scrap.
The undergraduate of physics built the yellow model helicopter seen above from old car and bike parts, using the money he makes from repairing cellphones and computers. Some of the parts were also sourced from a crashed 747.
The helicopter was built in 8 months.



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.
Over the years, a lot of geniuses like Mubarak have emerged from Nigeria, but what does the Government do to support them? Nothing.
I just hope things will be different with Mubarak, because he is indeed an asset to Nigeria.
If he could do this on his own, imagine what he could achieve with the right support and financial aid.