The team behind BKOO Inspiration, which will attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
Hong Kong’s first homebuilt and locally registered aircraft took off on Sunday to complete a three-month ‘Around the World Journey’. At 8:30 a.m., the aircraft revved up at the Hong Kong International Airport and headed off on the first leg of the trip to the Clark International Airport in the Philippines.
The aircraft, called Inspiration, will fly across all meridians and most latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic circles, covering approximately 55,000 km. Inspiration will stop at around 50 airports in 25 regions, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Italy, returning to Hong Kong in November after a brief stop in Macau.
With pilot Hang Cheng at the controls, and with the support of flight engineer Gary Tat, the B-Koo Inspiration will travel through Southeast Asia, Australia, before crossing over the Pacific. The longest leg the aircraft will endure is the challenge posed by the distance from Hawaii to San Jose, California, which will take about 13 to 14 hours. After crossing North America, Cheng will fly across Europe, before heading to Jordan, and them continuing on through Indonesia and Thailand, to finally land in Macau.
Before departing, Cheng exclaimed: “This is the day finally! […] I hope Hong Kong’s public will be inspired by our story – this is much more important than myself being the first in Hong Kong [to do this]…” He also thanked his family for their unending and constant support.
Growing up in Hong Kong, Cheng had always dreamed of building his own aircraft locally and flying it around the world. For seven years, he worked closely with groups of secondary school students and with engineers from Hong Kong to construct the aircraft.
According to a report by the Standards, Inspiration, a kit-built, RV-8-single a-engine aircraft was built at a cost of HKD1.5 million, from the combined efforts of 500 students, pilots and engineers.
Originally designed in 1996, Inspiration was fully built and took flight for the first time on November 15, 2015 from the Hong Kong International Airport. It also went through 40 hours of flight tests in Australia before the beginning of this journey.
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