
A man who built a plane on his Mumbai rooftop - dnyanesh
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41813389
======
ballenf
Isn't it true that in the US a homemade airplane is relatively easily
registered without much hassle? Just remember reading about airplane kits and
whatnot.

I don't understand the aviation minister's concern that "he'll crash". Is it
fear of embarrassing the country or actual concern for protecting the guy's
life? Or would the registration imply endorsement of safety and put others'
lives at risk?

One of the biggest controls on recreational flying in the US for folks I know
is the difficulty in getting life insurance coverage. It's a rather effective
market restraint: if you're wealthy enough to afford the hobby, you're also
likely keen on providing for your family.

~~~
danielvf
The US has about 33,000 currently registered homebuilt aircraft. There’s a lot
of them!

For some years when I was growing up, five homebuilt aircraft were built for
every one traditionally manufactured general avaition aircraft.

Most of these were built from kits or from plans, but there are still crazy
people who make their own designs. My absolute favorite is the impossible
Facetmobile[1]

[1] [http://www.facetmobile.com](http://www.facetmobile.com)

~~~
chris_st
Just curious about your description of the Facetmobile as "impossible"... do
you believe the video of it flying is faked?

~~~
mitchty
Probably in reference to another faceted plane that basically was
aerodynamically unstable, the F-117. Which was called the hopeless diamond.

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dnyanesh
"...PMO has pulled up top officials of the DGCA - aviation regulator -- and
asked them to follow a procedure to clear Yadav's project expeditiously. After
several meetings between the DGCA and Yadav on Monday, the regulator said it
would register his six-seater aircraft and would ensure its air-worthiness
without any further delay."

More:
[https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation...](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/after-
rap-from-pmo-dgca-to-soon-clear-mumbai-pilots-plane/articleshow/61376986.cms)

------
happy-go-lucky
Just out of curiosity, I went to their website at
[http://www.thrustaircraft.com/](http://www.thrustaircraft.com/). There's this
quote that caught my attention: _Talk To Yourself Once In A Day.. Otherwise
You May Miss Meeting An Excellent Person in this World_ \- Swami Vivekananda

------
uptown
This is my favorite rooftop airplane:

[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7042005,-74.0081902,115m/dat...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7042005,-74.0081902,115m/data=!3m1!1e3)

------
Normal_gaussian
> He has spent about $800,000 of his own, and his family's money, and has sold
> properties and pawned family jewellery to fund his dream.

> "In India, innovation by commoners like me is not taken seriously. [...]"

~~~
pjc50
Presumably he means "not well connected or from the right family / caste".
It's a very class-driven society.

~~~
byebyetech
Its not class-driven, but caste-driven society.

~~~
pcr0
That's quite a black and white view of things, which may have been true >100
years ago. Today there are wealthy people in the lowest castes and poor people
in the highest castes. Money and power takes precedence over caste.

------
jmkni
My very first question on reading the headline was, _but how will you get it
down_

Then I read the article:

> Incredulous friends and family members asked the young pilot how he planned
> to bring the plane down once it was complete.

Good to know I'm not alone!

Great article.

~~~
metaphor
TL;DR according to image caption:

> The plane was dismantled on the roof and lowered down by crane

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d13
I wonder who the fugitive billionaire is who has his private Airbus parked in
Mumbai airport?

~~~
axiom92
Vijay Mallya.

[http://indianexpress.com/photos/picture-gallery-
others/vijay...](http://indianexpress.com/photos/picture-gallery-others/vijay-
mallya-airbus-auction-pics-cost/)

~~~
iamjaredwalters
Either this website registers a new history with every scroll down the page or
it hijacks the back button so that pressing back scrolls you back up the page
until you've reached the top. I've never seen this functionality before.

~~~
d13
Yeah, it's horrific

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jszymborski
Reminds me of Peter Sripol, a young dude whose built one primarily of
styrofoam.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6CS-
YJ3_VU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6CS-YJ3_VU)

------
geff82
Just a quick look at the design reveals the rear wheels are nowhere near the
center of gravtity. This is important if you want to rotate on take off at
reasonable speeds and land smoothly. He should know such basic stuff if he
really flies for a living. Also the engine lacks cooling obviously. Cant‘t
take such stories serious, as in some way they discredit real Indian engineers
who build stuff, including planes, that are much more refined than this
comedy. On a nerd level of course, I think I like this guy for not caring and
just trying. Then again the article is framed as if he was some kind of bright
example for India.

~~~
cpncrunch
Not sure how you can tell the cofg just by looking at it. Looks to me like
theyre in roughly the correct position. I wonder if the engine is watercooled.

~~~
tim333
It's also where the tail is compared to the main wheels. When you want to take
off the pilot moves the elevator on the tail which pushes the tail down
causing the nose to lift up pivoting on the rear wheels. If you look at a pic
of a normal plane
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Cessna.f...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Cessna.fa150k.g-aycf.arp.jpg)
you don't have to push down too hard on the tail to lift the nose.

In the Indian guys design the tail is closer to the wheels and the engine
sticks out a lot in front so you'd need a lot of force
[https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14A54/producti...](https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14A54/production/_98546548_img_7820.jpg)

It might still take off but you'd need to be quite fast to get enough
downforce on the tail. I wonder if they'll get to try.

There's video of him driving it quite fast down the runway:
[https://youtu.be/1dLAmhDWEE8?t=27s](https://youtu.be/1dLAmhDWEE8?t=27s)

~~~
cpncrunch
Have you ever seen a 150 in real life? There's nothing in the tailcone. If you
had a battery and some avionics boxes in there, the you could probably move
the tail a few feet towards the front to achieve the same moment.

You simply can't guess the balance from a picture.

~~~
tim333
I learnt to fly in a 150. Yeah you can't tell exactly where the balance is
from a picture and it depends where you've put the luggage and so on.

Edit: Pausing the video at 32s it seems he's pulled back on the stick and
managed to lift the front wheel a few inches
[https://youtu.be/1dLAmhDWEE8](https://youtu.be/1dLAmhDWEE8)

~~~
topspin
He fully deflected the elevator and bounced the nose gear. With zero
passengers. You put 6 adults and a co-pilot forward of the rear gear and I bet
even bouncing will be out of the question. But we don't know if the ground
speed was even representative of take off, so we're all just guessing here.
With regard to cooling you can see an evolution here in the BBC photos: the
first two images show no cooling ducts on either side of the TAC-003 engine
compartment, but later images show several. I think geff82 is probably spot on
about the design.

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skybrian
Has this plane ever flown?

~~~
dnyanesh
This plane cannot fly until the DGCA (aviation regulatory authority of India)
registers it.

The PM of India has urged the DGCA to to clear this project expeditiously.

~~~
kranner
> This plane cannot fly until the DGCA (aviation regulatory authority of
> India) registers it.

It is permitted to fly it under 20 feet without DGCA registration.

------
h4ck3dDr3aD
Cant be too sure but there seems to be something off about the math in the
dollar amount... The article says he spent $800,000. Lets assume the going
rate of USD->INR is 1->60 (it is really 64 but I love easy math!) that would
mean he spent 48mil Rupees making a plane, at that price he could have owned
16 or so cessna 172's. Just food for thought.

