While most 17-year-olds are content just learning to drive, this one prefers to jump out planes.

Thrill-seeking Liam Byrne is the world's youngest wingsuit pilot.

Liam, from Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, and his dad have spent 18 months performing 200mph freefall sky-dives and the teenager now has no fear.

"It was completely different to what I expected," Liam said. "I thought it'd be like flying like a bird... relaxing, but it was like being strapped to a fighter jet.

"It was pretty mental, the first couple of jumps, slight movements would have big impacts on your suit. I mean, I lost control quite a few times of the wingsuit.

"If you put too much input into part of your body it will send you flying, like I found out!"

Acknowledged as one of the most dangerous sports in the world, it claimed the lives of many of its early pioneers.

While an adventurer himself, dad Michael still has a parent's natural concern for his son.

He said: "When you jump out the plane, you check-out, you check-in, then go. Then sure enough, as soon as my canopy's open, I'm looking all over the place (for Liam).

"On our second jump, I saw this person drifting off and landing in the river close to the runway, and I thought 'Oh no, oh no, is that Liam?'.

"The last thing I should do is follow him and land next to him to make sure he's okay. That goes against all the training, there's no way you can do that. But it's a huge worry, yeah."

Liam, however, is not fazed by it at all. He's intending to spend the next 18 months or so gaining more experience in a wingsuit before going to university.

He's not ruling out progressing to BASE jumping (Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth), but compared to the relative safety of wingsuiting from a plane, BASE is incredibly more dangerous with more than 30 deaths per year.

Understandably, dad Michael is less keen on that.