HELICOPTER PROJECT

Air transport is still a challenge in most developing countries all over the world and not only Africa or Tanzania.

It is obvious that amongst the things that our government is strongly working on is air transport.

The helicopter is one of major air transport vessel intended to perform special tasks which are very difficult to achieve with ordinary fixed wing airplanes. For example;

–        Rescue.

–        Firefighting

–        Medical evacuation(MEDIVAC)

–        Surveillance, anti-poaching e.t.c

–        Short domestic trips especially in areas difficult to reach due to poor infrastructures and bad weather conditions.

This is because this machine has a capability of landing on many areas without a need for the airport, airstrip and ability to hover.

The idea of affordable helicopter was conceived by two Arusha Technical College (ATC) staff namely Engineer Abdi Mjema and Adisai Msongole in October 2015 who designed a two seater helicopter by then. Work on affordable helicopter started in January 2016. The affordable helicopter was chosen over fixed wing aircraft due to limitations of runways and advantages that a helicopter posses over a fixed wing aircraft.  The two researchers have two things in mind when researching on an affordable helicopter. The first aim is to come up with a least expensive helicopter in the world (without compromising reliability) and second, to introduce a safety feature not in the current helicopters. The least expensive helicopter aims at enabling ordinary people to use helicopter as a necessity in air transport instead of a luxury mode of transport. Uses could be in areas of air transport, ant poaching, pilot training, military missions, agriculture, rescue missions and other areas that require this type of aircraft.

In terms of enhancing safety, it is clear that existing helicopters have safety features but Arusha Technical College’s affordable helicopter research aims at introducing a new safety feature that is non-existent in current helicopters.