• A university student currently studying engineering, Nii Amartei Amarteifio, is on a mission to build an industry-standard aircraft
• Taking to LinkedIn, the young man narrated how he has been researching and perfecting his skill for years
• In 2021, and after trying out different prototypes, he was able to carry out his very first flight test on the aircraft

A young man and an aspiring mechanical engineer, Nii Amartei Amarteifio, has revealed in a LinkedIn post that nearly four years ago in the university, he started researching rotary-wing aircraft.

That study led him into building one for himself. To achieve that, he would spend more time in his department’s workshop in school as he worked on perfecting his fabrication skills.

People told him not to give up now. Photo source: LinkedIni/Nii Amartei Amarteifio

The man kept working on his dream

He said days after he built the prototype of what he wanted, it never came out well as there were areas that needed to be perfected.

One of the challenges he had was having a weighty piece of metal. To achieve what he really wanted, the man set out on more prototypes.

He never gave up

Three months ago, he went ahead to create a fifth one from the experiences he had gathered from the unsuccessful ones.

Amartei revealed that what he came up with exceeded his expectations. He said:

“After almost chopping my fingers off several times, the results from this version exceeded my expectations! All the mechanisms worked smoothly and from an anthropometric POV, it was a success. I felt I was finally getting somewhere, and this feeling fuelled me some more.”

The challenges on the current prototype

On Saturday, September 11, the man ran the first test on the aircraft and it was a success to a great extent. He spoke about his challenges:

“The freewheeling unit engaged and disengaged effectively. The tail rotor transmission was able to hit the right RPM and withstood stresses caused by the large centrifugal force. Everything worked well except for some vibrations caused by its cantilever design. The engine also struggled to get the main rotors to the right RPM range to generate enough lift because of its weight.”

Below are some of the reactions to his work:

Dennis Duffour said:

“Keep it up my brother Nii Amartei Amarteifio. Whatever that is worth having is worth fighting for. More wins. More smiles.”

Dinah-Mary Allotey said:

“Well done for perseverance.”

Regnault Bamiji said:

“Well done. It’s a good start… There’s no giving up. It’s already a success.”

A smart Nigerian student

He is a final year student from the department of soil science. Photos of his piece show that the cooker also has baking and drying compartments.

Days after his work trended, the Imo state government visited his workshop as a sign of honour. The delegate was led by Honourable Eric Uwakwete.