I believe I can fly

The song “I believe I can fly” by R. Kelly brings memories of youthful dreams and inability to understand reality that people are not meant to fly. As a child, I would sit and watch birds and marvel at the science behind aeroplanes as they flew over my house. Even today, I am still fascinated by planes and have the greatest grins every time I am close enough to a plane.

So this blog is dedicated to those great inventors who dared to fly or build a flying machine. The story of Amol Yadav, the roof top plane builder is one of determination in the midst of strong challenges. Amol built a plane from car engines and started building on the roof of a building in Mumbai, India. This was a long dream pursued to the end.

Another dreamer is  Gabriel Nderitu of Kenya who with the help of books from the internet built a plane that was not considered airworthy, but I am sure that will not stop the man from pursuing his dream of building his plane.

There are more successful stories of  Students building a plane in Africa, but flying is not only about planes.

Was that a giant bird or a flying man?  That was the question on the lips of many people as Franky Zapata made his way across the English Channel from France to England on the 4th August 2019.

Great entrepreneurs and innovators have several things in common, let’s mention a few; vision, perseverance, determination and the ability to overcome defeats. French inventor; Franky Zapata successfully flew across the 22 mile English channel in 22 minutes. The kerosene powered fly-board could reach a speed of more than 100 miles an hour.

There are several reasons why this is an historic event. Mr Zapata had a dream to fly like a bird like most boys and girls. He started to work on his dream many years earlier with some support from the French government. Most importantly though, when he failed, he continued to try until he finally succeeded. The importance of the new flying machine may not immediately improve congestion on our streets but the French military are interested and supported the project, but I have no doubt a few millionaires with flying dreams may also want to buy the new toy.

The ‘bird man’ as Zapata is sometimes called is a man on a mission and whilst most of us can only dream of flying, he had attempted his fly board many times before risking his own life in the process.

It doesn’t matter how ridiculous your dream may be, you must give it a go. Until next time when I write about some great champions, entrepreneurs and innovators and their dreams.