Backyard plane builder in Kenya hopes his 14th try will take flight

As he climbed into the plane he'd built in his tiny Nairobi backyard, even Gabriel Nderitu was doubtful that the ungainly machine, with a 450-pound car engine bolted onto the front and a 7-foot hand-carved wooden propeller, would get him airborne.

When he revved the motor of Project One, as he called it, the deafening shriek of the metal beast rang out across the field where he was making his trial run. He calmly fiddled with the controls and the plane jolted forward. But after taxiing just 30 feet during the test in October 2010, the wheels collapsed inward.

The locals who had gathered to watch had plenty of useful advice. So did his neighbors. The plane was just too heavy to fly, they told…