Tire Repairman in Rural Rio Grande do Norte Builds Airplane with VW Beetle Engine and Scrap from Cars, Motorcycles, Trucks, and Bicycles

Known as “Bigode”, Gênesis Gomes started building the airplane with a beetle engine a little over a year ago and wants to get the aircraft in the air!

Gênesis Gomes, who lives in the municipality of João Dias in the Sertão of Rio Grande do Norte, has an airplane parked right in front of his house. The aircraft was built by him, who declares himself a “jack-of-all-trades” by profession. From tire repairman to engine expert, that’s how he started producing the small airplane a little over a year ago.

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“The first time I saw an airplane was at the Mossoró airport. I said: this is what I want to do,” says Gênesis, who is better known as “Bigode” and likes to be called that.

‘Bigode’ has loved aviation since childhood. “When I was a child, I dreamed a lot about flying.” A dream he had never realized until he was 29.

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But last week, a video of him taking off in an aircraft went viral on social media (see below).

The confusion arose because people believed it was the airplane he had built. “That was my friend’s gyrocopter from Catolé do Rocha, in Paraíba. It was the first time. We flew over the city of João Dias very high. It was amazing,” Bigode recounts.

The flight took place at an aviation event in the city of Paraíba, where Bigode was invited to showcase the aircraft. At the event, the singer Waldonys, whom he is a fan of and shares the same passion for aviation, even “taxied” down the runway with the airplane built by the tire repairman.

Airplane Made with Beetle Engine and Scrap from Cars, Motorcycles, Trucks, and Bicycles

Bigode hasn’t lost hope of taking off with the helicopter he built. The aircraft’s engine is from a beetle, but it also has parts from motorcycles, trucks, cars, and bicycles. All materials purchased from scraps. Even the faucet from his mother’s house became a part for the airplane.

“My plan was to make the airplane out of fiberglass, but I didn’t have the means. Then I saw that my mother had bought a zinc faucet because when it rained, water fell inside her house. When I saw it, I said, ‘Mom, you’re going to have to give that to me to put on the airplane.’ She asked me: ‘What about the house?’ I said: ‘We’ll figure out the house later.”

The 14 meters of zinc were used to make adjustments to the wings, but it still wasn’t enough. He also received donations from neighbors, who provided other materials, like aluminum and wood.

Agricultural worker Maria José da Silva, Bigode’s wife, says that the neighbors are still not used to the aircraft at their doorstep. “They take pictures. They even had a parade right in front of our house,” she says.

With Some Adjustments, It’s Possible for the Airplane to Take Off

Bigode will still conduct more tests with the airplane. But, according to him, some mechanics he spoke to during the event in Catolé do Rocha said that with some adjustments, the airplane could take off.

For him, the dream will only be complete when the airplane he built is in the air. “Before this airplane, I had already made a mini-helicopter, a glider without an engine, and one with an engine. But they didn’t work. But I’m going to build that wing again, and I want to fly,” he concludes.

Check out Bigode’s page on social media @bigodedoavião and support the tire repairman’s inventions.

by – G1