A group of Sussex aviation enthusiasts are building an aircraft they will never be able to fly.

Airport archivist David Dunstall and a team of eight volunteers have worked on The Flying Flea for the past six months.

They are building the aeroplane, the first in the world designed to be home-built, using a DIY manual written by its French creator more than 60 years ago.

Mr Dunstall, who runs the visitor centre at Shoreham airport, said: "We buy most of the materials from B&Q and other DIY places.

"When it is finished it will be exactly the same as it was in the Thirties but that means we won't be able to fly it. It will be capable of flying but standards have changed and it wouldn't meet the criteria."

When it is finished, the plane, which is made of wood and has cost about £5,000 to build, will be exhibited alongside another plane Mr Dunstall and his team have built.

The doughnut-shaped Lee-Richards Annular Biplane was developed at Shoreham in 1913.

The plane, which has 22ft diameter circular wings, has never left the ground either.

Mr Dunstall, who helped build the 40-year-old replica, said: "The biplane was far too heavy to take off. At the start of aviation, people had no idea what a plane should look like so this was one of the many experiments."

A similar circular plane with one wing was more successful and managed to achieve 128 hours of flying time.

The two planes are part of the centre's vast archive, which includes thousands of photographs, flight log books and documents about the airfield, which is the oldest in the country.

Mr Dunstall, who travels to the centre from his home in South Wales every week to work, is sent airport memorabilia from people all over the world.

The archive, which includes an aviation library with more than 700 books, has grown so quickly that he is running out of space.

The centre, which is independent of the airport and entirely funded by public donations, is run by Mr Dunstall and volunteers who provide guided tours of the airport.

It is open seven days a week from 10am to 5pm. For information, call 01273 441061.