Come fly with me: the next generation

The flyers of the future demonstrate their engineering skills at the London Air Show-a hand built 90 mph two-seater Rans 6 Coyote light aircraft. Chris Heyes and Chris Smalley, both 13, were among 50 air cadets from around the UK who built the American plane from kit as part of a sponsored project to encourage more youngsters to take up flying. The wings were built by cadets in Scotland and Wales, the tail plane in Northern Ireland, and they were put together with the fuselage by cadets from Heywood near Manchester. The £15,000 project was sponsored by the skills council for science and engineering SEMTA and the Popular Flying Association which will now take the plane to air cadet squadrons around the UK for flying lessons. Lord Trefgarne, SEMTA chairman, praised the work of the youngsters who spent over six months putting the plane together. “We want to encourage more youngsters into our aerospace and engineering industries and this was an ideal project which gave them a practical idea of what aviation is really about.”