paper plane in space

The best thing about the news story is at the end - "there was no point to it". My kind of men.

Also, because it is also the name of one of Status Quo's finest songs (when they were still rock, when their hair was still long, when they were still young etc..) their video is added.

Childhood bliss in 2 minutes and 53 seconds. Not many other things l can think of that would have given me so much pleasure in the same amount of time ("Steady on old chap!!").

Amateur space enthusiasts Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines made the plane out of paper straws covered with paper.

They attached the aircraft - which has a 3ft wingspan - and a camera to a helium balloon and released it into the air on October 28.

It soared an astonishing 23 miles above the ground, taking dozens of photographs, before gliding back to earth.

The men came up with the idea a year ago.

After months of planning, they put operation Paris - Paper Aircraft Released Into Space - into action, travelling to Spain to send the plane on its journey.

The balloon climbed to 90,000 ft where the helium expanded to a point that caused the balloon to burst and the plane was released, gliding down to earth 100 miles from where it set off.

There was no point to the exercise, IT expert Steve Davies told Sky News Online. "We did it because we wanted to see if we could - and we could!

Toodle pip