Six South African Teenagers to Fly Their Hand Built Airplane From Cape Town to Cairo
By Mai Aljazairi
Megan Werner, a 17-year-old South African girl, established her own non-profit organization when she was 16. U-Dream Global was established as an “outreach initiative which would foster the aspirations of young people and encourage them to embrace innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship as vital ingredients for the development and transformation of the African continent” according to WeeTracker.
The idea of building a Sling-4 airplane came to her mind when she was thinking of how to bring more attention to her. The airplane was assembled by 20 school students and six of them were able to obtain flying licenses. “The teenagers built the Sling-4 plane from a kit manufactured in South Africa by the Airplane Factory. The kit came with thousands of small parts that had to be put together. The engine and avionics were fitted by specialists, but the building was all done by the kids”.
After the airplane showed its efficiency in a trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town, they are planning on making a roundtrip with the plane from Cape Town to Egypt and back . They will land in different countries on their way too. They will land in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. And then on their way back from Egypt, they will make stops in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, and Botswana.
