Man makes functional mini-aircraft carrier at home  

湖北男子造“航母” 配彈射器能起降“飛機”

Xiangyang (ECNS) -- A man in Hubei province has made a two-meter-long miniature aircraft carrier which can carry and deploy model planes.

Its maker Zhang Guoguang, 59, is a laid-off worker formerly employed at a machinery plant in Xiangyang, Hubei province.

Using his expertise in machinery, Zhang started to make the model at the end of 2012.

Lacking computer modeling skills, he decided to base the structure on a picture of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier printed in a newspaper.

It took Zhang a whole year to finish the carrier, which is made of iron and weighs 50 kilograms.

It's equipped with a motor that allows it to move in water and has all the details of a real aircraft carrier, including an arresting cable system and catapult.

Zhang has named the model after himself, with the pennant number "59" representing his age when he built it.

Zhang said his next plan is to make a model of the Costa Atlantica, a top class cruise ship.