The Show - Production Notes - 747 vs Mondeo and 2CV

Unsurprisingly, Heathrow and Gatwick airports weren't too keen to let us scatter bits of blasted car across their runways. Fortunately we found a very nice airline that would fly one of its 747s to Prestwick, where there was plenty of space to destroy stuff.

BBC rules about advertising mean we weren't supposed to mention the airline that very kindly lent us the 747 for this experiment, so of course we didn't. I mean, what do they think we are, a bunch of Virgins?

During the first blast the pilot didn't use full power because he said it might over-stress the brakes and make the plane shoot off down the runway. Fortunately, one of the Top Gear production team was in the cockpit at the time and double-dared him to crank the engines to max. The pilot frowned and then said: "Oh alright then." Good man.

Richard and some of the production team flew back to London with the 747. Since they had the run of an empty plane during the flight, what else could they do but play football in the business class cabin. Well, you would, wouldn't you?

It amused us no end to discover that we weren't allowed to smoke anywhere while on Prestwick Airport property, despite the fact that we were allowed to blow up two cars using the thrust from a massive jet aeroplane. Rules are rules.