"I am very sure that I will fly" Amateur Ethopia Plane Maker Says

Initial Plane

(CNN)- On June 15 2015, Asmelash Zeferu sat at the end of a runway, over a decade of work malfunctioning around him. The Ethiopian amateur pilot was as shattered as his propeller.

There had been doubters, those who had called him "mad." Many had turned up at the airfield, 40 kilometers north of Addis Ababa, to watch him take off. He had been ready to prove them wrong.

But it wasn't to be. The propeller, hand-crafted from laminated wood, had broken.

The cause? High amounts of friction, taking with it the smoke exit system too. It was time to return to the drawing board and now, following months of repairs and remodeling, Zeferu is ready to line up on the runway once more.

Zeferu, 35, says that ever since childhood he'd wanted to become a pilot. He was on the right track, but when the time came, Zeferu was denied for the most arbitrary of reasons.

Leaving Alemaya University with a Bachelor's degree in Public Health, he tried to enroll at the Dire Dawa branch of the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy.

"I couldn't fulfill the air school height requirements," he explains. Zeferu was a centimeter too short.

Despite this setback, Zeferu was unperturbed.

"I decided to build my own aircraft if I couldn't be a pilot," he reasons, "then I'd be able to fly high in the sky."

June's disappointments are now behind him and Zeferu is ready to complete the task at hand.

In doing so he would take a seat among a pioneering group of amateur enthusiasts from the continent. Not all have been successful: Kenyan Gabriel Nderitu has attempted to take off 13 times, but like his dream, his plane has so far failed to fly. Nigerian student Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi created his own helicopter in 2007 with parts stripped from, amongst other things, a Boeing 747. Abdullahi had more luck, and after lifting 2.1 meters off the ground went on to gain a TED Global Fellowship and an aircraft maintenance scholarship in the UK.

Zeferu has made some modifications after receiving advice from fellow flight enthusiast Rene Bubberman, chairman of the NVAV, the Dutch Experimental Aircraft Association.

"We gave him some well-meant advice about his prop and especially about test flying," says Bubberman. "[His project] deserves a lot of respect... [it] truly breathes the spirit of the early airplane pioneers and his enthusiasm is contagious."

He's emphatic about his chances this time around: "I am very sure that I will fly."

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