Imagineering is what it’s all about – wouldn’t you have wanted to build your own helicopter from scratch when you were 17 years old?
Joseph Omwoyo, a young Kenyan form-four student in Western Kenya, did just that and built his own version, using locally available materials. It doesn’t fly, nor does it look like it will ever take off – but what really matters is that a young boy with limited resources still had the energy to fulfill his dream:
“…Omwoyo says he got the idea while in Form One when he, together with his colleagues, toured the Kisumu Airport, and – during the short time there – the idea of making a chopper stuck to his mind”.
We’re sure that Kenya isn’t the only place where people are trying to build their own aircrafts, BUT! this certainly reminds us of the Kahawa West Aircraft story back in October 2010.
For Joseph, the helicopter may be his own escape from reality, or in his words: “Emargence Door Exit”. Touché!
Update: the original video has been removed by NTVKenya, so we can only hope it will be uploaded again in the next few days.
Jealous much! I tell people I will need to make contact with someone like Joseph and host them when I get my own property, so I too can be a proud pilot of a home-made chopper ~:-)
I’ve been working in secondary school science clubs in Kenya, showing them these technologies, and helping them develop science congress projects. I want to know if there’s a program out there focused on bringing these local technologies to the classrooms. ANY advice or resources would be great. thank you.
An import areal for coming investigations:-)