Ernesford Grange school to build a light aircraft

"It's just amazing to walk around the school and see everyone so excited."



Hannah Tudgill is one of the pupils at Ernesford Grange Community School who is helping to build a fully-working two-seater aeroplane.

She said: "It's a great opportunity for people that wouldn't normally have this chance to build a plane."

It is the sixth school in the country to be chosen by Boeing and the Royal Aeronautical Society to take part in the Build a Plane Challenge.

Hannah said: "You never think when you come to a school that you'd be able to build a real plane, you'd think that you'd have to have lots of degrees and qualifications, but you don't, it's just such an amazing chance."

Along with other pupils from Year 10 and above, staff and volunteers will build the aircraft, so that it is airworthy and pupils can fly in it.

It will then be sold to raise funds for other schools elsewhere in the country to take part in the challenge.

The school has been given a Rans S6-ES Coyote kit by Boeing, and the team will be supervised by the Light Aircraft Association and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

It has a 30ft (9.14m) wingspan, but they fold back to enable the plane to be transported from the classroom after it has been built.

The kit is currently in pieces in two large wooden containers, and the team hope to have the aircraft constructed by September 2014.

School officials were asked if they wanted to put themselves forward for the project after one of its governors, the local chair of the Royal Aeronautical Society, heard about it.

Deputy head Helen Noble, said: "We had to prove that we could deliver not just building a plane, but also all of the educational elements and bringing in other schools, like Foxford, Baginton Fields, and all of our primary schools."

The pupils have been learning about flying and navigation with their own flight simulator, which includes part of an old aeroplane from Wellesbourne airfield.



Ms Noble said: "We took an old plane and gutted it and put the flight simulator into it, so now the students can experience, almost, what it feels like to fly."

She hopes that the finished aircraft, which is to be painted green to match the school, can fly from Baginton and on to the school playing fields.

Ernesford Grange has aeronautical connections as it was the former school of Red Arrows pilot Flt Lt Sean Cunningham who was killed last year.

He returned to give a talk to the pupils months before his death and an area in reception is now dedicated to his memory.

The school hopes that the project will inspire the pupils and highlight the range of career opportunities in engineering.