Thought you would enjoy this story...

I wonder what he has for tools?

TMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071021...UbcH NmOs0NUE

Home-made helicopters hit northern Nigeria by Aminu Abubakar
Sun Oct 21, 1:06 AM ET



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.

133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams

cavelamb himself wrote:
133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams

Richard,

A totally uninformed question here, could that explain the "It has never
attained an altitude of more than seven feet." Or is that even beyond
reach with so little hp working for you??

George

cavelamb himself wrote:

133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams


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.

Does a helicopter experience ground effect similar to when a fix wing
aircraft is near the ground?

Wes

George wrote:
cavelamb himself wrote:

133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams


Richard,

A totally uninformed question here, could that explain the "It has never
attained an altitude of more than seven feet." Or is that even beyond
reach with so little hp working for you??

George


Power.
As in no where near enough.

It takes raw unquestioned brute force to hover.

After that comes design detail - actually making the right compromises.
Helicopters are nothing BUT compromises...

The OH6A (built by Hughes) was marginal on 250 hp Allison turbine-
and it was as light as could be made.

Amatuer designers (like me, even!) tend to build heavy. Getting the
last ounce out of the structure requires extensive engineering - and
guts.

And costs a lot of money.
Kinda like women's Bikinis.
The less you get the more it cost.

So, 133 hp - FOUR seater?

I'm guessing it weighs a ton more than it should...



Richard

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:49:53 -0700, Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

"No one from the NCAA has come to see what I've done. We don't reward
talent in this country," he lamented.

Optimism isn't talent. This sounds more like a ground-effect vehicle
or hovercraft than a chopper. When leaving the top of a tall
building in a small chopper, there's a bit of a thrill when entering
air space with no building under it. It's a bit of a hoot watching
the faces of passengers who've never experienced that.

Don Foreman wrote:

When leaving the top of a tall
building in a small chopper, there's a bit of a thrill when entering
air space with no building under it. It's a bit of a hoot watching
the faces of passengers who've never experienced that.

My dad did some flying for Air America in Laos in the late
50's. There was one strip that on a hot day, even his Helio
Courier had trouble lifting off from. Luckily there was a
cliff at the end of the runway, and he'd just drive off the
end, getting enough airspeed to fly on the way down.

He said this was a real E-ticket ride for people that had
never experienced it!


Jon

cavelamb himself wrote:
George wrote:
cavelamb himself wrote:

133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams


Richard,

A totally uninformed question here, could that explain the "It has
never attained an altitude of more than seven feet." Or is that even
beyond reach with so little hp working for you??

George


Power.
As in no where near enough.

It takes raw unquestioned brute force to hover.

After that comes design detail - actually making the right
compromises. Helicopters are nothing BUT compromises...

The OH6A (built by Hughes) was marginal on 250 hp Allison turbine-
and it was as light as could be made.

Amatuer designers (like me, even!) tend to build heavy. Getting the
last ounce out of the structure requires extensive engineering - and
guts.

And costs a lot of money.
Kinda like women's Bikinis.
The less you get the more it cost.

So, 133 hp - FOUR seater?

I'm guessing it weighs a ton more than it should...



Richard

And if you read the article closely , he never got above a few feet .
Hovering on ground effect ... I've forgotten most of what I ever learned
about 'copters , but do remember there's a point where the power requirement
goes way up - but it's relatively easy to get that first few feet .

--

Snag aka OSG #1
'90 Ultra , "Strider"
The road goes on forever ...
none to one to reply

Jon Anderson wrote:
Don Foreman wrote:

When leaving the top of a tall
building in a small chopper, there's a bit of a thrill when entering
air space with no building under it. It's a bit of a hoot watching
the faces of passengers who've never experienced that.

My dad did some flying for Air America in Laos in the late 50's. There
was one strip that on a hot day, even his Helio Courier had trouble
lifting off from. Luckily there was a cliff at the end of the runway,
and he'd just drive off the end, getting enough airspeed to fly on the
way down.

He said this was a real E-ticket ride for people that had never
experienced it!

I've had way more hours of flight training in a
light sport airplane than I'd want to admit.
None of it came even remotely close to the gut-
wrenching thrill of an autorotation landing in
an R-22....

I think the guy would be better off building a
Piper Cub knockoff to start.

Anyhow, more power to him. It's always good to see somebody doing
something like this.

Wes wrote:
cavelamb himself wrote:


133 hp 4 seater?

Inyerdreams



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.

Does a helicopter experience ground effect similar to when a fix wing
aircraft is near the ground?
Absolutely, yes, and it is related to rotor diameter, just like a
fixed-wing's
ground-effect zone is related to wingspan. He mentions 300 rotor RPM,
which implies the rotor is insanely small. Very rough calculations
comes up with maybe 12 feet? So, did he use fan blades out of his
crashed 747 for his rotor? Sounds about right, but "it ain't gonna fly"!

Jon

I also wonder how effective his cyclic and collective pitch controls are :^)



"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:49:53 -0700, Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

"No one from the NCAA has come to see what I've done. We don't reward
talent in this country," he lamented.

Optimism isn't talent. This sounds more like a ground-effect vehicle
or hovercraft than a chopper. When leaving the top of a tall
building in a small chopper, there's a bit of a thrill when entering
air space with no building under it. It's a bit of a hoot watching
the faces of passengers who've never experienced that.

On Oct 22, 10:20 pm, Don Foreman
wrote:
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:49:53 -0700, Too_Many_Tools

wrote:
"No one from the NCAA has come to see what I've done. We don't reward
talent in this country," he lamented.

Optimism isn't talent. This sounds more like a ground-effect vehicle
or hovercraft than a chopper. When leaving the top of a tall
building in a small chopper, there's a bit of a thrill when entering
air space with no building under it. It's a bit of a hoot watching
the faces of passengers who've never experienced that.

I think i'd trust it as much as any other nigerian airline?