China’s DIY aviation community

Fun & Games
China’s DIY aviation community
diyAviation.jpg

From Wired’s Autopia blog:

China is home to a widespread DIY culture fed by necessity (the mother of all invention) and innovation. These garage builders and innovators are, like their products, often called shanzhai. Literally translated, it means “mountain strongholds,” but it has come to mean nonprofessional or clandestine manufacturers turning out products from the basic to the highly sophisticated. These shanzhai often take familiar products, concepts and marketing memes and remake them with peculiar but innovative twists.

Aviation is by no means an exception, and it has its share of shanzhai builders. But there is more to it than that. China’s emerging aviator class is spreading its wings with a plethora of approaches, from the ramshackle to the sophisticated to the potentially revolutionary. They’re using everything imaginable, from old motorcycle engines to electric motors to even their own legs, like Mao Yiqing and his human-powered airplane shown above. You could easily plot these adventurous innovators on a graph, with the X axis showing their skill and the Y axis their financial means.

The Sky’s the Limit for China’s DIY Aviators

4 thoughts on “China’s DIY aviation community

  1. Anonymous says:

    I will thank the Shanzhai builders because they are doing the best of it & providing new things to the society.I hope they should carry on their work for a long & get success.

    airport ground support equipment

  2. Anonymous says:

    I will thank the Shanzhai builders because they are doing the best of it & providing new things to the society.I hope they should carry on their work for a long & get success.

    airport ground support equipment

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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