Totally amazing! The amazing flying machines of Chinese farmers

Xiaoxiao Xu photographed amateur aeronauts building their own aircraft in backyards and sheds. She tells Fiona Macdonald how she was inspired by farmers with dreams of taking to the sky.


“All over the countryside in China, in the most unexpected places, farmers are striving to build their own aircraft. They don’t work in fancy hangars with all the equipment one could wish for, they simply play around in their backyards, recycling scrap metal and using household tools. They are self-educated, self-employed and penniless.” In the foreword of the photobook Aeronautics in the Backyard, Dutch artist Gover Meit describes the people tinkering with machines in pictures taken by photographer Xiaoxiao Xu. “They proudly call themselves ‘aeronauts’, literally meaning ‘being born into air.’”


In 2015, Xu travelled across China, seeking out those aeronauts. She had read about them in a Dutch magazine, and was inspired to find out more. “I was deeply touched by the playfulness, inventiveness, flexibility and optimism of the aeronauts… and fascinated by the magical and fairytale qualities of the subject,” Xu tells BBC Culture. “Fascinated by the rich imagination of these people and their romantic pursuit in contrast to their poor existence. I wanted to know how they deal with the conflict between their dazzling imagination and their reality; what motivates them to continue; where does their persistence come from and where do their dreams lead them?”

[link to www.bbc.com]

These stories are mind boggling. One of these aeronauts flew to almost 5 km (about 3 miles) before it go too cold and he had to come down.