A Brighton man has recreated Heathrow and Gatwick in the image of Shoreham Airport as part of a pioneering Sussex enterprise to teach students how to design aeroplanes.

Ray Morris created a virtual 3D world for a flight simulator designed by a husband-and-wife team in the village of Dial Post, near Horsham.

But the buildings at London's biggest airports were too intricate to model so Mr Morris decided to give them a local feel.

He said: "It was beyond what we wanted to do to create the real thing so the buildings were based on Shoreham Airport.

"It was all very art deco."

The graphics completed by Mr Morris and his Brighton new media firm DEX will be used in a training flight simulator designed and created by Marion and Christopher Neal.

The couple built the simulator unit, which tips and rocks when piloted, after they spotted a gap in the simulator market.

Their company, Merlin Flight Simulation Technologies, drew on Mr Neal's experience in the simulator industry and the advice of test pilots and industry experts to make the unit as realistic as possible.

Aeronautical engineering and avionics students fed designs for their own aircraft into the unit and saw whether they would fly. It can simulate everything from a Boeing 747 to a light aircraft.

Three £90,000 units have already been sold to City, Kingston and Coventry universities.

Orders have been placed for two new simulators by the University of Manchester and Queens University in Belfast.

This high-tech project was firmly rooted in Sussex.

Mr and Mrs Neal even used welders in their home village to piece together parts of the simulator. The firm was started in their own barn.

Mrs Neal said: "The students absolutely love it.

"It's actually quite frightening if you can't fly.

"Big companies wouldn't touch this product because of the overheads."

The progress of pilots in the simulator can be watched by fellow students and lecturers on screens outside the unit.

Mr and Mrs Neal are marketing the simulator overseas.

www.dex.co.uk