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The Wright....eeeerrrr...Wong brothers.
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese farmer's longtime dream of owning a helicopter drove him and two friends to build their own from an old Russian truck motor - but military officials have grounded the idea.
Le Van Danh spent seven years and a small fortune - 450 million dong ($30,000) - to build the aircraft, downloading instructions from the Internet.
But military officials recently confiscated the chopper, saying Danh needed official permission to build and own it.
Danh has vowed not to back down.
"It's my hobby. I will do whatever I can, including going to the Prime Minister, to get the permission," he said in a telephone interview Monday.
"Our 'copter could lift up more than a half-yard from the ground," he said "We are in the process of a fifth test of moving forward and backward, left and right."
He said he's willing to sell his house and 25 acres of cassava fields to get permission to fly his craft.
But it still won't be easy, said Le Cong Tinh, director of the Air Transport Safety division of the country's Civil Aviation Administration. No Vietnamese individual has ever been granted a government license to build an aircraft, he said.
But Danh refuses to be disheartened. "If I cannot do it, my children or my grandchildren will do it," he said.
Danh lives in Tay Ninh, 62 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
Le Van Danh spent seven years and a small fortune - 450 million dong ($30,000) - to build the aircraft, downloading instructions from the Internet.
But military officials recently confiscated the chopper, saying Danh needed official permission to build and own it.
Danh has vowed not to back down.
"It's my hobby. I will do whatever I can, including going to the Prime Minister, to get the permission," he said in a telephone interview Monday.
"Our 'copter could lift up more than a half-yard from the ground," he said "We are in the process of a fifth test of moving forward and backward, left and right."
He said he's willing to sell his house and 25 acres of cassava fields to get permission to fly his craft.
But it still won't be easy, said Le Cong Tinh, director of the Air Transport Safety division of the country's Civil Aviation Administration. No Vietnamese individual has ever been granted a government license to build an aircraft, he said.
But Danh refuses to be disheartened. "If I cannot do it, my children or my grandchildren will do it," he said.
Danh lives in Tay Ninh, 62 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
Comments
It all starts with a dream. Unfurtunately, communism dosen't recognize the individuals rights to have their own aspirations.
Don't know that it's Communism per se. Any government will and does put arbitrary restrictions on it's citizens, some more draconian than others, it is the nature of governments to do so. Even the one we live under.
When you wrestle a 'gator, there ain't no good end!!
"Molon Labe!" Spartan General-King Leonidas
Mudge the cynic
I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!