Will he be known as an aircraft designer and builder one day?

George Mel is only 23 and lives in South Sudan, which is still in the throes of civil war. He has always wanted to become an aircraft engineer. Despite having to leave high school because of his father's death and has a lot of time taken by his role as the supporter of his family, he still works almost constantly on building a plane. 

His research center is his bedroom. He scoured metal workshops to piece together an aluminum airframe, and imported two small engines to power it. Using a garden chair for the pilot's seat, he put the aircraft together with information he found in old textbooks and on the internet.

He has yet to test whether the plane will fly as the authorities have refused him permission to test-fly his ultra-light, restricting him to taxiing the aircraft in his yard. Still, this is a huge accomplishment for a 23-year-old kid in the backwaters of Africa.