Man builds homemade aircraft by watching YouTube videos

Well, it finally happened: someone built an airplane from scratch by watching YouTube videos. Yup, a man in Ethiopia used the video-sharing site to construct a two-seat, open-tandem parasol light aircraft powered by a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle engine. I'm not really sure if this homemade plane will ever manage to take off, but Asmelash Zerefu has already reached some pretty impressive heights.

From The Telegraph:

"Zerefu has applied his considerable intellect to the meticulous development of his plane. He spent more than a decade poring over FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) maintenance books, trawling the internet for existing aircraft blueprints and learning the craft of plane building from that font of all knowledge: YouTube.

And then, following ten years of planning, the day arrived that Zerefu had to begin construction on Ethiopia's first ever home-built aircraft. After incorporating the design of the Clark-Y Airfoil Wing into his own unique plans, and tailoring other existing plane parts, Zerefu began the long and arduous task of sourcing the components and materials he would need to construct his very own magnificent flying machine."

Read the full story here.

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