Derek Kesek plans to be flying high in the world\u2019s first hemp plane next year. At first, people laughed when the Burlington, Ont., former organic restaurant owner said he was going to build a plane made out of hemp. \u201cCan you smoke it, too?\u201d they jibed. \u201cBut, they\u2019re not laughing at me now,\u201d the environmental activist told Torstar News Service this week.<\/p>\n
Last month his Waterloo-based company, Hempearth, signed a contract with a Florida-based plane manufacturer to build an aircraft made almost entirely out of hemp.<\/p>\n
A member of the cannabis plant family, hemp is a tall, leafy plant with a strong fibrous stalk. It is used to make T-shirts, soap, rope, oil, food, construction materials and now, planes.<\/p>\n
Kesek believes his hemp plane could revolutionize the world \u2014 \u201cjust like Steve Jobs did with his phones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because hemp is a sustainable crop that needs no pesticides or herbicides to grow, the plane would have a carbon footprint significantly smaller than that of standard planes, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are building this essentially from weeds from the garden. When nickel and other elements are taken, they can\u2019t be put back.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least 75 per cent of Kesek\u2019s plane \u2014 including its wings, seats, pillows and outer shell \u2014 will be made from hemp, instead of fibreglass.<\/p>\n
The four-seater jet will be the colour of natural hemp fibre, with a wingspan of 36 feet (12 metres).<\/p>\n
If the plane meets aviation regulations, it will \u2014 fittingly \u2014 run on hemp biofuel, Kesek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody said, \u2018You can\u2019t do that, you\u2019re not going to be able to do that.\u2019 I just said, \u2018Watch me,\u2019 \u201d Kesek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one thought it would be possible, and all those people who were naysayers are now coming on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health Canada legalized the growth of industrial hemp in the late 1990s, but in some U.S. states it is still illegal to grow the cannabis plant.<\/p>\n
Hemp is often linked to its close chemical cousin, marijuana, and Kesek felt the need to clarify that no one would be smoking pot while building or flying the plane.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy company is not about marijuana; it is about industrial hemp. I keep it really clean; we are almost like the Coca-Cola of hemp and I\u2019m like the Richard Branson of the brand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sir Richard Branson, one of Britain\u2019s most high-profile billionaire investors, has been an inspiration to Kesek, who shared some other hemp-related pipe dreams with Torstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to build a spaceship and be up next to Richard Branson in space with hemp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
All going to plan, Kesek\u2019s first hemp project will be taking off next year, launching from Kitty Hawk, N.C., where the world\u2019s first successful aircraft flight took place.<\/p>\n
Velocity Inc., the U.S. company contracted to build the hemp plane, gave the project a price tag of $500,000, chief executive Duane Swing told Torstar.<\/p>\n
The company tested the strength and durability of woven hemp material before committing to the proposal by making two identical foot-long planks, one made from hemp and one from fibreglass.<\/p>\n
An employee then tried to break the planks to see which was stronger and found hemp was in most cases equal to or better than fibreglass, Swing said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we can prove that hemp is as strong as fibreglass, then we can push forward with the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Velocity Inc. was waiting on confirmation from Hempearth that the project has the necessary funding before starting to build the plane, Swing said.<\/p>\n
Kesek aims to get at least 30 per cent of the plane privately funded before turning to crowdfunding on the Internet.<\/p>\n
Hempearth was registered earlier this year with the sole purpose of supporting the hemp industry, Kesek said.<\/p>\n
He hoped the plane would raise awareness about hemp and its potential benefits on the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Derek Kesek plans to be flying high in the world\u2019s first hemp plane next year. At first, people laughed when the Burlington, Ont., former organic restaurant owner said he was going to build a plane made out of hemp. \u201cCan you smoke it, too?\u201d they jibed. \u201cBut, they\u2019re not laughing at me now,\u201d the environmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[8388,8387,8389],"class_list":["post-23075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-hempearth","supplier-kitty-hawk","supplier-velocity-inc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23075"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=23075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}