Twenty ambitious teenagers are finally seeing their hard work take to the skies.

The group built a Sling-4 aircraft themselves and now are flying it across the continent.

They took off from Cape Town International on Saturday morning and their five-week journey will end in Cairo.

"I was like oh my word, how cool would it be if 20 teenagers build a plane and then fly it across Africa?! Imagine what that would do to their mindsets," said Megan Werner, who is a pilot.

It took just three weeks for the team to build the four-seater plane and as they make their way to Namibia, Tanzania, Ethiopia and eventually Egypt, there will be many firsts and many challenges.

With no restroom on board, the team will have to have bladders of steel during their 5-hour stretches of flying.

A safety aircraft will fly with the group to ensure their safety and send updates.

eNCA