A 24-year-old undergraduate from Nigeria is building helicopters out of old car and bike parts. Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi, a physics student, spent eight months building the yellow model seen here, using the money he makes from repairing cellphones and computers. While some of the parts have been sourced from a crashed 747, the chopper contains all sorts of surprises.

一个年纪24岁的尼日利亚本科生用坏了的车和摩托车配件自制了直升机。穆巴拉克，是物理专业的，他用了自己修手机和电脑赚的钱并且花了八个月制造上图的黄色模型直升机。有的配件是从一个撞坏了的747拿的。

The 12-meter-long aircraft, which has never flown above a height of seven feet, is powered by a secondhand 133 horsepower engine from a Honda Civic. Controls are simple, with an ignition button, an accelerator lever to control vertical thrust and a joystick that provides balance and bearing. A camera beneath the chopper connected to a small screen on the dash gives the pilot ground vision, and he communicates via a small transmitter.

这直升机长度12米，目前还没有飞高于七英尺是用 二手133马力现代Civic的发动机。 操作很简单，有点火按钮，控制垂直推力的加速器和操纵杆。直升机下面装有摄像机，摄像机链接一个小屏幕为了让驾驶员看到地面，他还用微型声波联系。

Mubarak says he learned the basics of helicopter flying through the internet after he decided it would be easier to build a chopper than a car. Flying his creation is easy, he claims. "You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin," he explains. "The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you press the joystick and it takes off."

穆巴拉克说当他发现了制造直升机比制造一辆车简单多了，他就在网路上学直升机操作。他说自己造的很容易操作，“你启动，然后让它运行一两分钟，后来加速器向前移，螺旋桨会开始转”他解释。“你越往前移加速器它转的越快，刚打到了转300每分钟你可以安操纵杆直升机就会飞起来。”

Mubarak is working on a new machine which "will be a radical improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics." A two-seater with the ability to fly at 15 feet for three hours at a time

穆巴拉克现在在计划制造一个更好的直升机。可以坐两个人，飞15英尺的高度差不多三个小时一次。