London-based Ashok Aliseril Thamarakshan, a native of Alappuzha, Kerala, has successfully built a four-seater airplane in a project that took around 18 months to complete.
Thamarakshana and his wife, along with their two daughters, now use their home-made airplane to travel to Britain and Europe.
Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic are among the countries they have toured with their single-engine sling TSI, which Thamarakshan has named “G-Diya” after his younger daughter, Diya.
38-year-old Ashok Thamrakshan, a mechanical engineer by profession, is the son of former MLA AV Thamrakshan. He moved to UK in 2006 and is currently in London with his wife Abhilasha.
It was during the Covid-induced lockdown that the idea of making an aircraft came into existence.
“Initially, I used to rent small two-seater planes for trips after I got my pilot’s license in 2018,” he said, explaining that two-seater planes became redundant as his family grew. He realized that if he needed a four-seater plane he wanted his family to accompany him on his travels, but such planes are rare and hard to come by, so Thamarakshan had the idea to build one himself.
“I learned about the Johannesburg-based company Sling Aircraft launching a new aircraft in 2018 called the Sling TSI,” he said.
After visiting his factory, Thamarakshan ordered a kit to build his aircraft. The pandemic-induced lockdown gave him plenty of time to work on a time-consuming project.
Abhilasha told The Sun: “We first started saving money during the lockdown, and we knew we always wanted to have our own plane, and in the first few months we were saving a lot of money, so we thought We’ll let it go. ,
The estimated cost of this project in Indian currency is Rs.1.8 crore.
After completing the aircraft, Thamrakshan made its first flight in February this year. The engineer said traveling in indigenously built aircraft is not a problem in the US and Europe, which is currently on leave in his native Kerala.