Meet Bengal's Rezaul Sheikh, A School Dropout Who Built A 5-seater Helicopter

A man named Rezaul Sheikh, who could not clear the Class 5 mid-year exams in his school, has amazed everyone and is all set to take to the skies of Burdwan and beyond with his homemade helicopter.

The helicopter pilot, who hails from the Ghola area in the Purbasthali-1 block of East Burdwan district in West Bengal, said that he stopped going to school after the failed attempt, adding that with this feat, he wanted to fulfil his father’s wish to let people across the country know about Rezaul as he has no economic problems thanks to his earthmoving business and an orchestra team. He stated that this feat was only for his father.

“Initially, everyone laughed at my plan to build a helicopter, but that did not dampen my enthusiasm,” he said, explaining that he has spent Rs 30 lakh on the work so far. That is almost half of the amount required to build a helicopter. The work began with him buying equipment for the helicopter from various places, including Kolkata and Panagarh.

The engine was sourced from Karnataka and Rezaul said that the helicopter has a seating capacity of five people. “The copter can carry up to 2.5 tonnes of weight and has 400 horsepower. It weighs around 4 tonnes,” he said, explaining that it is not meant for passengers but for transporting goods.

Another man built his helicopter out of small parts by watching YouTube. The man was Sheikh Ibrahim, a 24-year-old welder and high school dropout. He welded mostly steel pipes together and built a single-seater helicopter in two years. During a test run, one of the rotor blades broke off and slit his throat.

His friends, who were there to cheer him on, unfortunately, had to watch him lose his life. His friend told local media that he was inspired by Rancho from the movie 3 Idiots, a freethinker who helped a woman give birth by making a birthing house out of a vacuum cleaner.

He probably would have survived if he had worn a helmet, or put a little more time and effort into building a door, or maybe if he hadn’t tried to build an entire helicopter at all.