A dozen Hawke's Bay teenagers are putting their weekends to good use by building a $100,000 aeroplane - becoming the region's latest aerospace manufacturer in the process.
Hawke's Bay and East Coast Aero Club secretary Peter Steers said two girls and 10 boys aged between 12 and 16 years old were involved in building the aeroplane.
"Mercury Bay [Area] School in Whitianga started this idea about five or six years ago. They introduced this building and aeroplane exercise where they can learn engineering skills and metal-forming skills - all sorts of skills that they wouldn't normally get.
"So I thought I would get my Young Eagles and some Air Training Corps cadets to join in and build an aeroplane. This would be purely so that at the end of it, they can learn to fly it and then we sell it and with the money we get back from it, we can start again with some new students."
Mr Steers said it would cost about $100,000 to construct the full Vans RV12 light aircraft. The first of three stages had been funded by a $33,000 grant from Eastern and Central Community Trust.