Airplane fanatic spends £5,000 on a vintage cockpit

AN airplane fanatic renovated a vintage cockpit – and keeps it in his girlfriend’s garden.

Dean Smith, 45, bought the front of a Hawker Siddeley 125 jet for £5,000 – then he was busy with lockdown.

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He recreated it to look – and smell – exactly as it did when it first flew in 1956.

And he said, “There’s a white noise soundtrack playing that makes you feel like you’re on an airplane.”

The plane was used to carry celebrities such as actress Elizabeth Taylor and the father of terror chief Osama bin Laden.

Dean, from Port Talbot, said: “We found a Winnie the Pooh teddy bear digging up the floor which we believe belonged to a child of the bin Laden family.”

The care assistant plans to turn it into a mini-museum with other jets he has his eye on.

Though girlfriend Rhiannon Reynolds – and her neighbors – are happy for now, he says he needs a bigger house with a garden to display her in.