A Southampton window cleaner had the unusual call to clean the outside of an aeroplane.

Andy Stinton, the owner of Stinton Window Cleaners, took to cleaning the BAC 1-11's windows outside Solent Sky Museum on Tuesday.

The 43-year-old passenger aircraft was acquired by the museum from Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre and has been sitting alongside the Calshot Spit lightship.

Andy, 59, to the Echo as he cleaned the outside of the plane, soon set to become a cafe.

He said: “I normally clean down at an industrial estate in Rownhamds and Richard from Solent Sky dropped me an email asking whether I could clean a plane.

“He sent me a picture of it. My wife joked with me saying she didn’t believe it at first. But I turned around to Richard and said I would come down to have a look at it.”

This is the first time the business owner has cleaned an aeroplane window in the 40 years he has worked in the trade.

He said: “I had to clean the outside of a windmill last year in Bursledon. That’s the quirkiest job I have ever done.

"I don’t think I have ever had a plane before. Windmills and planes aren’t usually a normal job for me.”

He added: “Normally it’s just about cleaning the windows but because the plane sits under a tree there is a lot of pigeon mess, which I am having to soak up to them remove it.

“It’s a shame because where it sits, I'll clean it all up and then in a week’s time it’ll be back to how it was.”

Traffic was briefly stopped as the aircraft was transported through Southampton late last year on the back of a lorry to its new home.

The plane was built at Hurn near Bournemouth in 1981 and used to be on display at Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre.

In 1991 it joined the Defence Research Agency and took part in radar trials at Boscombe Down, Farnborough, and Bedford before making its last flight on April 26, 2013.