Everyone could ride on a plane, but not all could build an aviation backyard and build a personal aircraft. With all his guts, this Chinese-American who is an engineer at Nokia did build one for himself, but it took him 10 years.
Perhaps all the drawings, materials, parts, polishing, assembly and tests that occurred in one of the backyards in the western suburbs of Chicago were all worth it. David Hu thought of making an airplane in 2006 as a personal project without backing out on his ambition to fly one that is his own. He has produced an airplane weighing 590 kilograms with a top speed of about 290 kilometers per hour with a 644 to 724 kilometer mileage.
John Musgrave, an instructor of Blue Sky Aero Inc. who has flown airplanes all his life, described the one made by Hu to be ‘perfect sound mechanically’ and one of the best airplanes he has ever flown. He added that the plane is safe, with everything in the airplane as certified aircraft parts.
Source: Global Times China
Source: Giphy
Hu’s self-made airplane has passed all the technical evaluations of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and has made its maiden flight in June this year. As of this posting, he has been in the air with it for 32 hours in 2 months, that’s about two to three hours a week. So far Musgrave’s remarks were proven true – no problem has occurred since.
“This is a 10-year journey. There are a lot of challenges for my families to support me, a lot of problems along the way, emotionally, physically, financially. Like any kind of big project, but I am glad that we made it,” said Hu.
