Liam Byrne has dreamed of flying like a bird since he was a child.
For the past decade, he has dedicated his life to achieving this goal.
“It may sound strange but I knew really early on that’s what I wanted to do – fly like a bird,” he said.
The 23-year-old, from Stonehaven, is now the British champion in performance wingsuit flying and is affectionately known as “bird man” to his family and friends.
Liam learned how to skydive when he was 16 and he became Britain’s youngest wingsuit pilot on his 17th birthday.
He now says the wingsuit is a “second skin” for him.
Adventures in Stonehaven and across the world
The adventure-seeker is the subject of an upcoming BBC documentary, titled The Boy Who Can Fly.
The half-hour episode builds up to Liam taking on the most technically difficult challenge of his career – a wingsuit jump off 7,000ft Männlichen in Switzerland.
He feels ready to achieve this – at speeds of more than 200mph – after completing almost 4,000 jumps.
He told the filming crew: “When I’m getting ready to go to the edge of the cliff there’s a voice in my head that still says ‘what are you doing, man?’ but there’s another voice that says ‘this is all you’ve been dreaming about your entire life, this is your destiny’.
“And that voice always wins.”
Filming also took place in Liam’s hometown of Stonehaven with his parents, Mike and Gillian, and his sister, Emily.
Panning shots of Dunnottar Castle and the coastline open the show to highlight the local nature which inspired Liam’s love of the outdoors.
He says walking up Bennachie as a child triggered his sense of adventure and has led to his more extreme challenges across the world.
Liam Byrne takes on biggest challenge
Base jumping – an acronym for buildings, antennas, spans and earth – involves jumping from a fixed object with a parachute.
“Definitely do not try this at home,” Liam said.
After 10 years of training and building experience, the 23-year-old is pushing himself to reach “elite” levels of the sport.
In wingsuit flying, this involves proximity flying – as fast and as close as you can fly to the ground or objects.
As he steps up to the cliff edge in the Swiss Alps, Liam takes a moment to connect with his 13-year-old self.
He says: “As far back as I can remember that this is what I wanted to do, so every time I walk up to that cliff with a wingsuit on I kind of connect with that 13 year old kid that said he wanted to do it.
“Overall that’s what I’m most proud of, the fact that I’ve done what I set out to do.”
The Boy Who Can Fly will air on BBC One at 7.30pm on Friday, November 8.
Conversation