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Isn't building an airplane difficult?
Today's small airplanes (without the radios and instruments) are about as complex as that antique car, and share the simplicity of a basic heating and ventilation system and direct rod or cable linkages to the control surfaces. An airplane ignition system is just a couple of electricity producing magnetos connected to spark plugs. The exhaust system is a short tube to direct the exhaust out of the bottom of the cowl. The fuel system is a tube from the tanks to an engine driven fuel pump and then directly to a float-bowl carburetor with a manual mixture control.
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If you've ever been around a small, lightweight airplane, you
know that
it is basically a hollow aluminum shell with an engine attached to the front, a
place to sit, and some instruments and controls strategically placed for the
pilot..
If you've ever seen or ridden in an antique
automobile, you were
probably amazed at how simple it was too. If you looked closely at
things such as the heating system, you saw that it was a simple metal shroud
over the exhaust system that collected hot air and let if flow through a
manually adjusted door into the cabin. Or you saw the pedals attached to
a rod going through a hole in the floor that connected directly to the engine or
the brakes. You didn't see a multitude of wires and hoses and cables that
you see on a modern car.
Building an airplane from a quality kit is not
terribly difficult. Riveting sheets of aluminum together is a skill
that you can learn in less than 5 minutes. After a little practice, you
can even get pretty good at it.