24-YEAR-OLD NIGERIAN IS BUILDING HELICOPTERS

Hopes for Support from Nigerian Government and Wealthy Compatriots

Inspired by films he watched on television and learning the rudiments of flying from the Internet, Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old undergraduate physics student has built a helicopter.

According to a news dispatch from AFP in Kano, northern Nigeria, Mr. Abdullahi has flown his chopper briefly on six occasions. The aircraft measures twelve meters long, seven meters high and five meters wide. According to the AFP report, the helicopter "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." It took Mr. Abdullahi eight months to build the yellow chopper shown here.

The chopper's cockpit has a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrusts and a joystick that provides balance and bearing.

A small screen on the dashboard connects a camera to underneath and the chopper for ground vision, a set of six buttons adjusts the screen's brightness while small transmitter is used for communication.

Mr. Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi and his Chopper

The much hoped interest and support from the Nigerian government and other wealthy individuals is yet to materialize. Mr. Abdullahi complains that no one from Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) "has come to see what I have done," expressing regret that talent is not being rewarded in his country. Funding so far has come from money he makes as a computer and mobile phone repairer and a donation from his father who teaches at Kano's Bayero University.

Acknowledging that his helicopter lacks some basic devices, Mr. Abdullah is determined to make significant improvements on the new flying machine, which he has already started work on that he claims "will be a radical improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and improvement."