It sounds completely bonkers, a recipe for disaster, to make it all the way to Cairo in Egypt from the South African metropolis of Cape Town in a homemade plane, but that is exactly what some teenagers are doing - right now.
The trip will take around six weeks to cover the 7,455 miles and the four-seater aircraft has already successfully completed its first sector to Namibia.
The Sling 4 aircraft was made by a diverse group of 20 students, "The purpose of the initiative is to show Africa that anything is possible if you set your mind to it," said 17-year-old pilot Megan Werner.
It took around three weeks to put the aircraft together, from a kit manufactured in South Africa by the Airplane Factory. This kit plane came with thousands of small parts that all had to be slotted into their respective holes, slots and areas.
"Looking at the plane, I am so proud of myself, I can't believe what we've done. I feel like this is my baby. I cherish her," said Agnes Keamogetswe Seemela, 15 from Munsiville township in Gauteng province. "It flies so smoothly and the views were breathtaking," she said of its maiden voyage, from Johannesburg to Cape Town, ahead of the official start of the trip.
"I was involved in putting together the centre fuselage as well as the horizontal and vertical stabilisers. And I also helped a bit with the wings. - At first, people in my community were shocked - they didn't believe me when I told them I helped build a plane which we will be flying from Cape Town to Cairo," she said. "But now they're actually very proud of me."
Seventeen-year-old Megan Werner started the project and was one of six in the group to study for and gain a pilot's licence. The six will share flying duties in their silver aircraft, which is emblazoned with maps of Africa on both wings together with sponsor's logos. "Getting a pilot's licence is equivalent to completing a degree - doing so when I had to study for my mid-year school exams wasn't easy,"
Source BBC
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