Man builds aircraft in garden shed

By Sean O’Riordan

Thursday, June 25, 2009

NOT everyone can say they built a light aircraft in their garden shed, but that’s exactly what a man from East Cork has done.

You could say it was like putting together an Airfix kit for grown-ups.

It took 51-year-old Peter Sheehy a little over a year to complete and now he can’t wait to get up in the air.

However, before he could achieve his dream, the aircraft had to pass stringent regulations.

Last weekend Peter, who lives in Shanagarry, transported the plane – known as a X Air Hawk – up to Granard, Co Longford, where an aircraft engineer passed it with, pardon the pun, flying colours.

It now has to be flight-tested and, once that is completed, Peter is hoping to take it on a maiden flight to France at the end of next month.

"I’ve been flying light aircraft for over 20 years. It is actually the second time I have built one and I have been involved in a lot of aircraft restoration projects," the quarry manager said.

The aeroplane is equipped with a 2.2 litre Australian-manufactured engine, similar to a Porsche Boxer engine.

"It has a top speed of 100mph [160km] and has a range of four hours," Peter said.

He intends to use an airstrip in north Cork as a base for most of his flights.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, June 25, 2009