A group of teens is set to make aviation history as they plan to fly a light aircraft from Cape Town to Cairo in Egypt.
The group of 20 plans to fly the 10 139km distance on June 12 in a plane they have assembled themselves.
“The purpose is to show Africa and even the world that anything is possible if you set your mind to it,” 17-year-old teen pilot Megan Werner, from Krugersdorp, told News24 on Wednesday.
Werner founded U-Dream Global, which supervised the building of the aircraft, in order to promote science, technology, engineering, mathematics education, innovation, youth empowerment and skills development.
The teens built the aircraft in two weeks under the guidance of The Airplane Factory, U-Dream mentors and five team leaders from Denel Aviation.
Following final inspections and flight certifications, Megan and various teen co-pilots are now set to fly the light aircraft from Cape Town to Cairo, charting a course across Africa to visit towns and cities in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea to Egypt and a return trip that will include Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia.
To raise funds to cover the costs of fuel, accommodation, crew support, commercial flights, branding and documentation of the trip, the team hopes to raise a total of R 350,000 through a campaign launched on the donation-based crowdfunding platform, BackaBuddy.
U-Dream Global will host a pre-trip party on June 8 at Tedderfield Airpark in Eikenhof, 24km south of Johannesburg. The public will have an opportunity to meet the team and see the aeroplane fly for the first time.
More: news24