Cheng Weiyi and his plane made from a dilapidated two-seater propeller plane. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Recently, a Pingtan boy named Chen Weiyi assembled a complete, functional airplane. The news was first released on the Internet and caused a sensation among netizens, reported Pingtan Times.

Chen is from Pingtan's Luyang town in Fujian province. He graduated from Xiamen University of Technology, majoring in business planning and management. Chen decided to engage in the cultural and creative industry when he was in college.

However, he saw little opportunities in already saturated industries such as animation, real estate, and automobiles. Inspired by his brother, who was working in helicopter sales, Chen decided to pursue work in the aviation cultural and creative industry, a burgeoning and promising industry back then.

Chen's social experiences and part-time jobs earned him a modest sum of money when he was in college. Encouraged by his indomitable spirit, Chen bought a scrapped plane. The plane is a two-seater propeller trainer that can make aerobatic flight. It is very cheap and popular among foreign aviation fans.

The plane has an 8.46-meter-long body and 10.18-meter-long wingspan, and its landing gear, propeller and panel were largely in good condition. In order to assemble the plane, Chen worked hard with his friends. They also employed experts for professional guidance. After one month's work, the plane was completed.

However, due to mechanical obstacles and airspace controls, Chen and his friends were not able to fly the plane. In spite of this, Chen plans to buy another plane to realize his dream of flight next year.

Chen's also plans to build an aviation creative culture park and an electronic commerce website to sell aviation creative culture products.

Chen said he would have displayed the plane in Pingtan, his hometown, if he had found a proper site. The Xiamen Culture Creativity Park in Fujian province invited Chen and his friends the chance to display their plane there in the near future.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai