WOULD-BE commercial pilot Matthew Atherton celebrated his 21st birthday in style, flying upside down in a 1941 Boeing Stearman!

Matthew, from Rising Bridge Road, Rising Bridge, enjoyed the trip of a lifetime thanks to his parents, Michael and Roseann, who arranged the flights at Keen Air in Liverpool.

He said: "It was certainly a 21st birthday to remember! The owner Martin Keen took me up in the Stearman and we flew over towards Chorley and then started performing aerobatics such as loops and rolls and stall turns, when you fly vertically until the plane stalls and then you come back down.

"Then the intercom stopped working and Martin had to mime to me into a small mirror on the wing what stunts we were going to be performing!"

As part of his present, he got the chance to fly in a Chipmunk when he took the front seat with Martin in the back.

Matt, who has his private pilot's licence and is a flying instructor with the Air Training Corps at Samlesbury, was also given the chance to perform stunts himself.

He said: "The first time I went up in a Chipmunk was six or seven years ago with the ATC 1969 Rawtenstall squadron and I had to sit in the back and all you can see is the instructor's head so to sit in front was excellent."

Matthew is completing a Physics with Space Technology degree at the University of Salford.

He took a year out to work at British Aerospace in Warton where he worked on the design of the cockpit for the Eurofighter, was on the flight test group for the Hawk and is currently working on the technical 3D images for the flight simulator.

Matthew, who has one year left at University and hopes to become a commercial pilot, said: "Had it not been for the ATC I would not have had these chances."