Teacher Cameron Rodgers is "about a fifth" of the way through his project with his group of students to build a working light aircraft, which began last year.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to help over the summer so that has put us back a bit," he said.

Mr Rodgers said he didn't think the plane project would be quite as popular as its become but past and present students have gone out of their way to have a sneak peek.

"A fair few of our alumni are involved in aviation and we have a strong aviation history," he said.

"The interest in outside the school has been huge, I didn't expect that."

The project has about 30 students involved in it but only about 15 of those are working on it regularly.

Mr Rodgers said he had hoped during the year to expand the project to other parts of the school and to bring in the junior campus supervised by the older students.

Grammar grade 8 student Jasper Chilvers said he had an interest in aviation and that's why he wanted to be part of the project.

"It's pretty unique; you don't get this opportunity often," he said.

Jasper said he hoped to become a helicopter pilot in the future and working on this project would give him a good understanding of the mechanics of an aircraft.

Mr Rodgers said while the plane was starting to look a bit more like an aircraft it was still in pieces.

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He said the team had only had to redo one part of the plane so far but "it didn't end up being a big problem."

Grammar has a strong association with the aviation industry and Mr Rodgers said once the plane project was complete he was hoping to introduce a more permanent aviation course into the curriculum.

The plane will continue to be built over the next year, Mr Rodgers said he was unsure of the exact time it would be finished, but estimated possibly early 2020.

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