A cancer survivor from Northern Ireland has launched a daring attempt to become the first person to fly around the world in a gyrocopter - a tiny rotor-powered aircraft with an open cockpit.
Norman Surplus hopes to fly around 480km a day to complete the 27,000-mile solo journey by mid-July.
After setting off from a field in Larne, on the coast north of Belfast, Surplus plans to travel east to west and take in 26 countries.
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He will stop off daily to refuel and rest, a spokesman told AFP.
Surplus will also be making a big detour to avoid flying over China, because it was "too difficult" to get the necessary permission, the spokesman added.
The 47-year-old businessman - who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2003 - intends to raise money for cancer research along the way.
"Before I got cancer I had never done anything like this," he said.
If Surplus manages to circumnavigate the globe in his little yellow autogyro, a predecessor to the modern helicopter, he will be setting a new world record.
"It's the only type of aircraft in the world that hasn't made it round the world. Someone tried in 2005 but he was stopped by the monsoon in India," explained Surplus - who has timed his trip to avoid the rainy season there.
