The AW95 Helicopter: A Dream in the Making

“How long have you been working on it?” and “When will it be finished?” If this website had an FAQ section, those would definitely be the top two questions. Pinpointing the exact start of this project is tricky because the dream of building a helicopter dates back to my high school days.

It all began with a good friend and a shared ambition: to build a helicopter. With no money to even buy proper plans, we dove headfirst into the project. After googling pictures of home-built helicopters, we chose the one that seemed easiest to replicate and got to work. Armed with a stick welder and limited resources, we started welding a thick steel frame from 60x60 mm square tubing, about 2-3 mm thick—scrap yard treasures that became the foundation of our dream.

Of course, aluminum should have been the material of choice, but we worked with what we had. In just a few weekends, the frame was complete, and our attention turned to the rotor head. Determined, we went to a professional hardware store to purchase a bearing capable of handling axial loads for the main rotor shaft. When we learned it cost €50, we were floored—that was more than our entire budget for the engine! The bearing remained on the shelf, and the project was grounded.

For years, a rusty helicopter frame stood in my parents’ garden, a silent reminder of our first attempt. Eventually, that frame was cut into pieces and repurposed into the structure supporting a small metal shed that still stands today. Ironically, even for that use, the beams were probably oversized!

I’ve searched everywhere, but I can’t seem to find any pictures of the old helicopter frame. Documenting my projects has never been my strong suit—something I’m determined to change moving forward. Back then, I probably had a phone, as my first-ever photo dates back to 2010. However, I rarely used it and almost never took pictures.

The earliest photo I could find (see left) shows my motorised go-kart, with another project piled on top: the first version of my skimboard winch, powered by a car starter motor. Also stacked on the heap is a kid’s scooter, because the garage was starting to overflow. The plan was to power the scooter with a pulse jet—one of our earliest welding experiments (spoiler: it didn’t work 😅).

The point is, for many of the cool projects I worked on during that time, I don’t have a single picture—just vague memories. That’s why I decided to create this website: to document and share some of my projects.

Sometimes I stumble across a video on Instagram of a creative builder—like someone making a Van de Graaff generator, a real classic—and it reminds me: “Oh yeah, I built one of those too!” It’s time to start preserving these stories and sharing them with others.

After high school, I left my parents’ house to attend TU Delft, where I studied Aerospace Engineering. The learning curve was steep, and I gained a wealth of knowledge even in my first year. Looking back, it’s clear that if you had given my high school self and my friend all the time and money in the world to buy tools, bearings, and gears, the helicopter project still wouldn’t have taken off. But with one year of aerospace engineering under my belt, I decided to give it another shot!

At the end of my first year, I purchased a set of plans for the AW95 helicopter. For months, I spent my evenings poring over the plans, imagining how to bring the parts to life. With the summer vacation approaching, I finally had some free time to start machining the components.

Machining had become a hobby of mine, and by the end of high school, I had assembled a decent collection of tools in my parents’ garage, including a lathe and a milling machine. My plan was ambitious: to build the entire helicopter in one summer. If things didn’t go as planned, I figured I could wrap it up on weekends during the semester.

With little machining experience, I managed to finish the tail rotor that summer. However, I soon realized that building a helicopter was far more demanding than I had anticipated.