Fear of the authorities highlighted their challenges .. Iraqis make aircraft march

Ammar Al Saleh - Basrah

Youth from the province of Basra (southern Iraq) succeeded in achieving the dream of childhood in the manufacture and management of aircraft, despite the obstacles they faced with the beginning of their career.

The group was founded by three individuals before it was joined by other hobbyists who mastered the craft industry, with the availability of raw materials in the local market for the purpose of publishing this game, which they consider a scientific culture rather than a youth hobby.

"We started the team since 2014 when it was just a hobby that brought us together to practice," said team leader and co-founder Mustapha Al-Furaiji. "Then some young people join them, bringing the number of team members to 22 to expand further and become our focus."

Youth Investment
"We aim to create opportunities for young people to invest their energies and encourage them instead of going to negative aspects," Al-Furaiji told Al Jazeera.net.

The fear of the security authorities has been a major challenge for the team members, especially in their handling of the aircraft, and the team still complains that there is no place for the games.

Al-Furaiji points out that his team has not received government support, and its members provide their needs in cooperation with each other and with their personal efforts.

Aircraft Industry
Hassanein Nizar, one of the first founders of the team, believes that this hobby represents a culture of quality that brings with it knowledge of many things in aviation and electronics and has great scientific benefit.

"We initially worked on how to manufacture the aircraft, and we searched the Internet for details of its industry. We copied aircraft and built on it, so we were able to know the details of its manufacture two years after our launch."

He pointed out that "the number of aircraft owned by the team up to about seventy, and will increase with the entry of new members."

The team focuses on the manufacture of gliders, which are divided into the category of fighters and the so-called (3D) because of the movement of aerobics when flying in the air, and allocate model Sukhoi 26 to train amateur.

Hassanein said that the aircraft they manufactured did not constitute a copy of the aircraft because they operate remote control (remote control), and do not meet the specifications of being merely aircraft games do not pose a danger to the security side.

Yousif Hassan, who belongs to the team and is only 15 years old, finds the fun of the games motivated him to study aviation in the future.

"After joining the team I learned from them the aircraft industry and how to deal with them and moved away from the electronic games that were running my time."

Yusuf, who is attending his team's activities with his father, is fluent in his professional flight and competes with his teammates.

Continue the journey
Concurrently with the group's ongoing weekly activities based on competitions and competitions among its members in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Basra, it succeeded in gaining the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and has legitimacy to qualify to move more space.

"This team includes new talent that we support and support because of the lack of interest in youth centers and forums and not embrace them," said a member of the Olympic Committee in Basra Mushtaq al-Shammari.

"We are currently working to obtain official approvals to allocate a place in the sports city of Basra to be a dedicated location for them to engage in their activities more freely."