My final year project in engineering was the development of a model hovercraft, designed by my project mates and me, and built according to our specifications by us, using a variety of locally available materials.
We met with a lot of failure – the damn thing just wouldn’t work, i.e. it wouldn’t float. We were told by our professors to change our project and do something regular, like a furnace or something (we were in mechanical engineering), but we stuck to our guns.
But frankly, we were beginning to get really worried. On the morning of the 2nd of February, 1985, we had a discussion, and decided that if we didn’t manage to get it working over the weekend, we would give up.
That night, one of my project mates and me worked till late in the night on the model, but it wouldn’t work. Totally disheartened, we slumped onto the floor of my room, and my friend tapped the model, whose motor was running.