A-LEVEL student Richard Paget is flying high after finding out his invention is to be displayed at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry.

The Bolton School sixth former has designed a mini "black box" for model aircraft, after combining his flying hobby with A-level technology studies.

Richard noticed that fellow enthusiasts are often left in the dark about why their model aircraft worth thousands of pounds have crashed.

His solution was to design a flight data recorder to allow owners to track model planes up to the time of the crash and find out what went wrong.

Judges were so impressed with the creation they shortlisted the 18-year-old for the 1998 Young Electronics Designer of the Year organised by the YEDA Trust.

His prize for being shortlisted is three days in Manchester to see his work displayed in the Castlefield Museum and the chance to win £1,000 at a gala dinner at Granada Studios at the end of June.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.