Painter builds home-made aircraft

It is hard to imagine that there is an “air base” situated next to a painting studio in Dafeng Oil Painting Village in Longgang District.

Chen Jianhua, owner of the painting studio, is also a flight simulation enthusiast. When Chen opened his “air base,” a giant figure, which is nearly 6 meters long and has two almost 8-meter-long wings, came into sight.

Chen works on a home-made plane in his studio at Dafeng Oil Painting Village. Photos by Lu Ying

Chen, who was born in the 1980s in Putian, Fujian Province, told Shenzhen Evening News that “I really like making handicrafts when I was a kid and read lots of books in this regard. I made my first ‘airplane’ when I was 11 years old. It was paper pasted. It can fly far when you kick it from a balcony on the second floor.”

Chen jokingly said that a flight dream had been planted in his heart back then.

Chen learned about flight simulation by chance in 2010 and studied related knowledge from a flight simulation website.

Later, Chen joined real pilots, captains and air traffic controllers to simulate real flights online. During the simulated flights, he not only flew domestic routes but also international long-haul flights on his own.

In 2012, Chen designed a pair of glasses to be used for the model aircraft. He connected the head sensing device with the aircraft video, which is similar to VR technology. After the model aircraft takes off, it feels like traveling through the sky as long as you wear the glasses.

Chen Jianhua sits in a "plane" being built in his studio.

“Many people reached out to me to seek cooperation and want to buy the glasses for patent application. But I refused,” Chen said.

Gradually, Chen had a more ambitious goal: build a manned aircraft. In order to achieve the goal, he self-studied CAD (computer-aided design) drawing and 3D (three-dimensional) design.

An aircraft engine is difficult to build due to limited budget. Chen finally worked out a way to install two engines to achieve double power.

Chen’s first aircraft, named Yixianghao, finally took shape in May 2021. In January 2022, Chen did a successful test flight with a flying height of 2 meters. However, the newspaper did not give more details about the aircraft.

Chen received a private order for an agricultural amphibious aircraft in June 2022. He said it a great recognition and achievement for him to build it. The newspaper did not say whether Chen received government approval for the flight of the aircraft.

Several tech companies in Shenzhen also offered job opportunities for Chen to apply their technologies on manufacturing aircraft, according to Chen.

He suggested that Shenzhen’s open and inclusive characteristics helped nurture every person who is chasing their dream.