Martin Gearing, 29, proposed to his girlfriend, Sarah Britten, 24, under the nosecone of Vulcan bomber XH558 while air crew members looked on.

Martin is the son of John and Jenny Gearing of Keld Avenue, Uckfield.
He was a pupil at Holy Cross Primary School and Uckfield Community Technology College and now works as fleet sales manager to a Ford dealership in Horsham.

His fascination with planes started as a small boy when he was taken to airshows by his aviation-mad dad.

He met Sarah through work although the pair emailed each other for three months before they exchanged telephone numbers.

They got together during a visit to a Lincolnshire air museum.
Martin said: 'We shared our first kiss in the cockpit of a Vulcan - so this just seemed the right place to pop the question.'

Planes were important to Sarah too who says she was watching birds as a little girl when her mum explained to her how aircraft stay up in the sky and the memory of that conversation stayed with her.

Martin managed to keep the proposal plot secret by pretending it was going to be a nice day out for his dad to Bruntingthorpe Airfield, Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

The famous plane is the subject of the Vulcan to the Sky campaign which aims to raise enough money to get it airborne at shows throughout Britain.

So far £7.5 million has been raised, but a total of £1.6 million a year is needed to keep the plane airworthy for show appearances.
It burns £30,000 of fuel an hour when flying.

Vulcans were the infamous bombers kept airborne with a full nuclear payload 24-7 during the Cold War.

Rusty Drewett, commercial manager at Vulcan to the Sky said: 'All of us at Vulcan to the Sky wish Martin and Sarah a long and very happy life together.

'We feel very honoured that Martin has chosen the Vulcan as the stage for such an important and life changing event for both of them.'