A WORLD-class model aircraft flyer from Wollescote regarded as the best Britain's ever produced has died aged 78.

Stafford Screen flew scaled-down aircraft for teams representing Great Britain on 31 occasions including 23 consecutive World and European Championships teams from 1977 to 1999.

During his working life Mr Screen pursued a passion for engineering, eventually gaining a post as technical director at a multi-national company and then as a consultant when he retired.

However it is as a world-champion model glider builder and flyer in the F1C and F1J classes that he will be remembered.

Martin Dilly, from the British Model Flying Association, said: "His obsession with detail and superb workmanship showed on his models and paid off in performance.

"His Silhouette design was made Model of the Year by the US National Free Flight Society and, thanks to his friendship with top Ukrainian flyer Evgeny Verbitski, in the 1990s he introduced to the west the Soviet technology of laminating high-tensile dural foil onto balsa to cure the problem of wing flutter that had previously limited F1C performance."

"I had the pleasure of managing championship teams all over the world with Stafford as a member and he was always utterly reliable and an asset to the other flyers.

"He will be very much missed by his many friends on every continent and I will particularly feel his loss."

His world and European championship medal haul included three individual silver medals, was on four gold medal winning teams, one silver and two bronze.

Mr Screen died on Wednesday January 2, he is survived by his wife Pam, two daughters, four grandchildren and his brother Bruce.