Wallington man's plane crazy curry restaurant is ready for take-off

Aeroplane lover Mustafa Azim has converted a Boeing 737 passenger jet into a luxury curry restaurant and will soon be opening it for business.

The plane/restaurant from the outside - it is in a secret location in Leicestershire

Mr Azim, who runs a plane salvage business, hatched the plan to make a jet into a curry restaurant and has finally been able to turn his dream into a reality.

Three top curry chefs will run the kitchen, based in a building next to the plane, and guests will be able to sit in the jet while they enjoy their meals.

The plane's seats have been stripped away to make room for dining tables and chairs but all the other fittings, from overhead lockers and a TV screen to all the dials and machines in the cockpit, remain as they were when the AB Airlines plane flew from London Stansted airport.

Mr Azim, 48, said: "It didn't take too much work because we wanted a lot of the fittings to remain as they are.

Mr Azim

"We stripped out the seats and replaced them and that's about it.

"I had the idea in 1993 or 94 but councils wouldn't give permission for us to do it - but I think people are more forward thinking now.

"There has been phenomenal interest in the project and now we're having a charity dinner on Monday to see how it all works then, hopefully, we'll be able to open properly in a few weeks."

The plane is based at a secret location in Leicestershire and meals are prepared by award winning curry chefs Akki Miah, who has catered for stars including Atomic Kitten, Mofur Miah, who cooked on a Spice Girls tour and Abdul Rob who cooked for pop stars Lee Ryan and Aswad.

Mr Azim is also preparing to see two of his planes on the big screen. Last year he gave two planes to producers of new Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow.

The film crew blew huge holes in the planes so they could be used as props in action sequences in the film, originally titled All You Need is Kill.