Ditching Dalgona coffee or banana bread, this Kerala man built himself a plane in Lockdown.?
London-based Ashok Aliseril Thamarakshan is going places¡ªliterally and figuratively. What is more special about his story is how he's traveling the world in an aircraft that he built himself from scratch.?
According to the Times of India, Ashok, a resident of Alappuzha, Kerala, built a four-seat course over nearly 18 months.
In their single-engine Sling TSi, which Thamarakshan has named "G-Diya" after his younger daughter Diya, they have been to a range of countries, including Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
The 38-year-old son of former MLA AV Thamarakshan is a mechanical engineer.
He relocated to the UK in 2006, and he and his wife, Abhilasha, are now living in London. Thamarakshan had the idea of developing an aircraft while the city had been under lockdown due to COVID-19.
"Initially, I used to rent small two-seater aircraft for trips after acquiring my pilot license in 2018," he said, explaining that two-seater aircraft became redundant after his family started expanding.?
"I learned about a Johannesburg-based company, Sling Aircraft, launching a new aircraft named Sling TSI in 2018," he said.
After touring their plant, Thamarakshan placed an order for a kit to construct his plane. He had more than enough time to work on the time-consuming project owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown.
Abhilasha spoke to The Sun, saying, "We started saving money during the first lockdown, and we knew we always wanted to have our plane. We saved a lot of money in the first few months, so we thought we would give it a go."
In February of this year, Thamarakshan completed the aircraft and made its first flight. Europe and the US do not have any issues with home-built aircraft, claims the engineer who is currently on vacation in Kerala.
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