Shortly before his 98th birthday, pensioner George Moyse has become Britain's oldest parachutist.

The native of Dorset, on England's south coast, jumped out of an aeroplane some 3,000 metres into the wide blue yonder.

Moyse, who was strapped to his instructor in the tandem jump, was in a free fall for the first 1,500 metres, and then floated to a perfect landing on Salisbury Plain, in the county of Wiltshire.

Speaking after his return to terra firma, Moyse said: "It was lovely, I really enjoyed it, I wasn't frightened at all."

"It was the first time but it won't be the last," he added.

Speaking about his surprising agility for one of such advanced years, Moyse said: "I do not sit around, I get about, I go for a walk every day and I do my own cooking, washing, ironing, everything."

Moyse, who turns 98 on Wednesday, made the jump to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.