Amateurs spend $120,000 making 'Airbus 320' frame

Zhu Yue (2nd right) and his team pose in front of their homemade Airbus A320 jet plane at an open space in Kaiyuan, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Nov27, 2017.[Photo/IC]

Six young men have spent around $120,000 (800,000 yuan) creating a frame reminiscent of the Airbus 320 using hammers and electric welding machines in Kaiyuan, Northeast China's Liaoning province, according to Shenyang Evening News.

With little knowledge of mechanics, the six amateur aircraft makers turned more than 40 metric tons of iron into a 37-meter-long and 36-meter-wide frame, much like those used to build the Airbus 320, within less than one year.

The young men encountered several setbacks in their efforts to obtain measurement data from an Airbus model. At first, they tried to use computers to zoom in on the model, but the model was too small to produce accurate data. Later, they hired a company to do three-dimensional measurements on the model, but errors still occurred, which kept them revising the data.

"When welding the engine, we were stumped. It took us a lot of effort to weld the 200 pieces of sheet iron. Luckily, we made it," said Zhu Yue, who once worked as a motorcycle repairman.

Zhu also said when the "Airbus 320" is finished, it could be used either as a wedding venue or a theme restaurant where staff could dress like flight attendants.