An Israeli technician checks a fighter jet during the international "Blue Flag" air combat exercise at the Ovda Air Force Base near south Israeli city of Eilat, Oct. 24, 2021. Air forces of eight countries began the international "Blue Flag" air combat exercise in Israel on Oct. 17.(Photo: Xinhua)

Jordanian Muhammad Malhas has long harbored dreams of being a pilot. Now at 76 years old, he is soaring above the clouds in a cockpit he built in his basement.

As a boy, he always enjoyed flying his kite and wondered how something so flimsy made of paper could soar so high. "It was then the desire and love of flying began to obsess me," he said, sitting in the flight simulator, a replica of the cockpit of a Boeing 737-800, which he has spent three years building from scrap.

He graduated in hospital management from a London university in 1969, and went to work at the Amman hospital the family had founded. But Malhas kept his dreams alive, devouring books on aviation and aircraft engineering.

He even joined the Royal Jordanian Air Academy in 1976, rising before dawn to take flying lessons before heading to work. He obtained his licence two years later.

AFP