Neil Laughton, the British adventurer, is about to set off on a very unusual expedition that will see him soar over Africa in a flying car. This Parajet Skycar can fly up to 70mph, speed along at up to 100mph on the roads and is even powered by environmentally-friendly fuel. The 6,500km journey from London to Timbuktu, in West Africa, will see Neil flying across the Pyrenees near Andorra, over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, above stretches of the Sahara desert and wherever else the road may run out. The brains behind the souped-up sand buggy is 29-year-old inventor Gilo Cardozo. It takes just a couple of minutes to turn the car into an aircraft, which relies on a giant motor-fan and parachute to launch it into the air. Neil will be followed by a team of engineers and experts in case he gets into trouble.