Ba-loony fun for Top Gear

Is is a bird? Is it a plane? No, it was a flying caravan, designed and built in Shropshire, crossing the skies of Britain.

The amazing flying machine transformed itself, Chitty Bang Bang style, on the BBC's Top Gear programme last night.

Oswestry company, Lindstrand Balloons, was asked to get involved in the programme's latest irreverent dig at the caravan by creating an airship with a difference.

Last night viewers saw James May attempt to "fly" the caravan to a campsite to stop it snarling up the roads, enjoying the views and even cooking up a snack en-route.

But in true Top Gear style the journey was not all plain sailing.

Lindstrand workers took six months to turn a real caravan into a gondola slung under one of its airships.

In last night's BBC2 programme presenter James May drove a caravan into a huge hangar in the south of England and drove out with the hybrid creation slung under the massive hot air balloon. But as he took to the skies it was not May piloting but Oswestry's Chris Sanger-Davies, one of only a few pilots across the world to hold an airship licence.

The pair flew the airship east, en-route for a caravan park, flirting with danger as it navigated through Norwich airport.

The airship eventually arrived at the caravan park, only to find trees getting in the way of a safe landing.

And when the craft eventually touched down in a nearby field, it tipped on its side and was last seen being dragged across the countryside by its balloon envelope.

By Sue Austin