Students build airplane as class project - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

Students build airplane as class project

Some class projects can give students hands on experience that can't necessarily be learned in the classroom. For one school students have had the task of building an airplane!

 It's taken three years for the plane to make it to the runway. For some of students- this will be the first time they see their hard work- take off. It's been a class project for over 100 students at St. Wendelin Catholic School.

 "It's an amazing feeling to be apart of something like that and say that you've done it. And have that experience and knowledge if that. It's something that is going to be with me for the rest of my life," says Justin Ball, sophomore in college

 Ron Bowerman is the school's physics teacher. He says grant money helped pay for all the parts, but it was the student's hard work putting the plane together that earned them school credit.

"A lot of kids have learned a lot of things from covering the aircraft to how to assemble. Some of the kids, though it's frustrating at times, it happens they make mistakes but if you fall and don't get up you never learn, you never grow," says Ron Bowerman.

Some of the frustrations were just going through the manual, looking what we needed to do. Figuring out getting the measurements down," says Ball.

"Like right here you can see just for this strut we had to put 6 rib bits just to hold that in place- now apply that to the plane and it feels like you did that several thousand times!" says Philip Streacker, high school senior

Students say it's much more than just a cool project built by students. It's a project with a purpose. The plane is being donated and shipped overseas to the Kenya Wildlife Service. It's mission will be to monitor elephant populations.

"It's awesome knowing that what we did is really going to help someone somewhere out there," says Rodney park, high school senior

 Before the plane can make it's way to Kenya--it needs to complete 40 hours of test flights in the skies of Fostoria.

The public is welcome to watch the plane finish the rest of it's test flights this coming Sunday from 3 to 5 pm at the Fostoria Municipal Airport.