Smurf plane (Empath stories)

The Smurf plane is an invention of Handy Smurf that was created some years before Empath's final return from Psychelia. Handy was inspired to come up with this invention after seeing Empath being able to fly under his own power during his visit on his 120th birthday and after many failed attempts to achieve the same for himself. The Smurf plane was a single-seated, single-winged vehicle that was powered by a key that wound up its engine. It could operate only as long as its engine is properly wound up, which could cause the plane to fall out of the sky once its engine winds down. Because of this limitation, Handy could only operate the Smurf plane for short periods of time.

As chronicled in the fanfiction story "I Believe I Can Fly", during Handy's test flight of the Smurf plane which impressed most of the other Smurfs, he had accidentally ran over Smurfette's flowers, knocked down the bricks of her chimney top, and shredded her laundry when he ripped through her clothes line. Upset by Handy's carelessness, Smurfette went off into the forest to collect more flowers to replace the ones that were destroyed, only to find herself captured by Gargamel. Upon the Smurfs receiving a message from Gargamel to give themselves up or else, Handy went after him using the Smurf plane to distract him long enough for to rescue Smurfette from his grasp. The two Smurfs then flew through the forest in the Smurf plane in their attempt to lose him, but then the engine wound down, causing them to fall toward the ground. Handy quickly wound the engine back up using the key, and soon the two Smurfs were back up into the sky, nearly averting disaster.

Gargamel then decided that he was going to go after the Smurfs with a flying machine of his own. By using the Great Book of Spells in his hovel, Gargamel developed that flying machine and used it to fly over the village, dropping web balls on top of all the Smurfs to capture them. Only Handy escaped by taking off in his Smurf plane to confront Gargamel, but the evil wizard was prepared for this and fired acorns at the Smurf plane, nearly damaging it. Handy decided to do some damage to Gargamel's own flying machine and flew through its wings to shred them, causing the wizard to lose control of his vehicle and to come crashing down far away from the village. However, that action had rendered the Smurf plane totally inoperable, forcing Handy to escape using a parachute while the Smurf plane crashed into a tree.

By the time of Empath's 150th birthday, Handy had rebuilt the Smurf plane and made the new model to be a two-seater which now ran on a fuel made from Farmer's compost pile. Handy had used this vehicle to give Empath a ride home to the Smurf Village, and later used it when the village attacked Gargamel while he was wearing the Gauntlets of Gantharros.