G-HIP, the crate-built helicopter

A flight of pure imagination. G-HIP is a lovingly assembled flying contraption that looks as though it taxied straight out of a tinkerer's workshop. The fuselage is a humble wooden packing crate, its registration stencilled across the side in faded service yellow. At the front a riveted metal nose cone gleams with an amber-tipped sheen, while a jaunty blue fin perches on top like an afterthought of aerodynamics.

The real charm lies in the engineering. Power supposedly comes from a riveted tin-can engine crowned with a domed orange cap, feeding a single rotor blade that sweeps overhead, its tip painted in caution-stripe yellow. Below, the machine reveals its secrets: a Pratt & Whitney pressure gauge frozen mid-reading, a chemical bottle plumbed in with copper piping, a tangle of red, blue and green wiring, and a cheerful OFF/ON toggle switch that surely decides everything. Bicycle chains loop over toothed sprockets to drive the whole improbable affair, all of it rolling on stout little wheels with bright red hubs.