Parking shouldn't be a problem for anyone who buys a £1.5 million converted barn which has its own airstrip.

The eight-acre Sussex home has just gone on the market and has a private landing strip as well as two aircraft hangars.

A helicopter pad completes what the owner calls "the ultimate aviator's dream," with room to park about ten aircraft.

Never mind keeping up with the Joneses, anyone who snapped up this home could even keep up with Hollywood stars like John Travolta, who is a self-confessed "airline geek".

The 50-year-old actor's pad in Florida has eight parking spaces - six for his cars and two for his aeroplanes, as well as a 1.4 mile runway round the back.

He owns a former Qantas jet which, despite being 134ft 6in long and 250,000lb, he parks in the backyard alongside a Gulfstream executive jet.

But these air-park developments, known in the US as "hangar homes", are a much more common sight over there, with only a handful scattered across the UK.

Owner of the Sussex property, Brian Richardson, a former flight engineer for Cathay Pacific Airways, uses the airstrip at the house in Five Oaks Road, Slinfold, near Horsham, to fly around the country and abroad.

He and his wife Jackie, 57, who have two sons, one a pilot, have lived in the wood-clad house since 1993 but have decided to move to France.

Mr Richardson, 62, said: "I started working as a flight engineer for East African Airways in 1968 and when I was there I learnt how to fly and have been flying ever since.

"I have only got one plane at the moment but once I had ten at one time. I bought nine in one go from China. Now I am retired I just fly myself and Jackie around. Tomorrow we are going to France for the day.

"I hate driving anywhere and generally if I can't fly somewhere I don't go.

"Everybody who flies has the ambition to own their own airstrip. The difference with this one is that because it is 53 years old, it is totally unrestricted.

"Most airstrips are subject to an old law where you can only use it for 28 days of every year, but I can use this 365 days a year, 24 hours a day if I want."

The barn, set in the Sussex countryside, also has four bedrooms, a garage, a front and back garden and all mod cons after the couple spent three years renovating the place.

Mr Richardson added: "I love flying and loved having this place. I fly whenever I can.

"One of my sons is now a pilot for Qatar Airways and he lives in Qatar now. He has two children and they are really into planes as well.

"Whoever ends up buying this place will have to be someone who loves flying."

To view the barn, visit www.buytofly.co.uk