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Nigerian Student Builds a Home-Made Helicopter from Scrap Metal (PIC)
news.yahoo.com — 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. The chopper, which has flown briefly on six occasions, is made from scrap aluminium that Abdullahi bought with the money he makes.
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- MikeonTV, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2No way it is 7 meters high? burrinac
- cindylauper, on 10/23/2007, -1/+3Brilliant, I can't even fix my bike.
- Error601, on 10/23/2007, -2/+2He's probably going to need a lot more power to get that to do much. It's hard to tell how much without knowing the weight.
- aximbigfan, on 10/23/2007, -3/+9Sorry, Im a heli pilot. This guy did not build a functioning heli.
1. I dont see any anti torque mechanisms, ie tail rotor.
2. Helis are VERY complex machines and are VERY hard to fly. You dotn learn how to fly one from a movie.
3. I dont see a swashplate or any other method of controlling the rotors pitch in the images.
4. It does not take 8 months to build a heli. It takes more then a few years, even when it has no avionics/instruments.
5. What exactly is "300 rmp"?? I find it hard to believe that someone who would say this could build a heli. Besides, my aircraft takes a bit more than 300 RPM to take off... say, 800-1000 rpm.
6. You cant build a heli out of spare stuff you have lying around, it doesn't work that way. parts need to be machined first, and more planning goes into it than just joining 2 pieces together.
7. The main rotors must be extremely strong when spinning at RPMs high enough to lift the aircraft.
There are hundreds more reasons why this is fake, but I wont get into that.- richgustavson, on 10/23/2007, -5/+3There are hundreds or reasons we shouldn't have been able to land on the moon either.
- jdoe562, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2The moon lander wasn't built by a college student with scrap metal in his spare time.
- swrostmore, on 10/23/2007, -1/+11. Look at the big version of the picture, there is a tail rotor - it's spinning so it's hard to see in the thumbnail
2. The pilot didn't learn to fly from a movie, he got the idea to build one from a movie (?)
3. I assume thats why it can't fly higher than 7 feet
4. Somebody just proved you wrong
5. It's a typo.
6. Again, you've been proven wrong by some dude in Nigeria.
7. Yes.
Why would anyone bother to fake something like this? I see no reason to believe a physics student couldn't accomplish it.- wreckosaurus, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1"Why would anyone bother to fake something like this?"
It probably has something to do with an email scam.
- wreckosaurus, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1"Why would anyone bother to fake something like this?"
- richgustavson, on 10/23/2007, -5/+3There are hundreds or reasons we shouldn't have been able to land on the moon either.
- pimpbot1979, on 10/23/2007, -0/+8Mubarak M. Abdullahi (1983 - 2007)
- aflaks, on 10/23/2007, -2/+1I barely fixed my bike tire
- jamesspelt, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2"Abdullahi calculates it will be able to fly at an altitude of 15 feet"
Perhaps his budding career won't end as quickly as expected. - Dewale, on 03/25/2008, -0/+0HI, I am Adewale Olu and am a Nigerian. i have read all your comment about my country though every body is entiteled to his own opinion. As for the Helicopter, it was not cunstructed by Mubarak, it was constructed by me and he supplied the money. I called him into the making because i was not having enough money to complete it. I emberked on the making for fun and before i could complete it i went for my National youth service (NYSC) and before i came back the story was all over the places that he has made a helicopter and he was going about begging people and government to give him money to complete it. I have the videos of the making and all the pictures. When next i visit this site, i promise to come with them. He doesnt know anything about it. I am a nigerian that discourage eating from other peoples sweat. There are other people that also take part in the making especially Dr. Nurudeen Lawal Said, karama boys and others. It never fly even for once and it was not made in his backyard, it was made in my neighborhood.
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