Go Niche

IF THE WORDS Top Gun still have resonance for you, chances are you've at some stage wondered what it would be like to fly fighter planes.

Now you can find out. US travel firm Incredible Adventures has been allowing tourists to exercise their inner Tom Cruises for the past 15 years with its "MiGs over Moscow" package.

Not only do you get to break the sound barrier and skirt the edge of space, but you get a neat flight suit, too.

The fun - and your MiG-31 fighter jet - starts at Nizhny Novgorod. Nizhny was formerly known as Gorky, which explains why it's Russia's third biggest city and you've never heard of it.

Despite being a top-secret aircraft manufacturing base, it's open to all-comers as long as they can meet the hefty price tag.

That said, you need to book 45 days in advance for security clearance.

Anyone in reasonably good health can do it, but don't take chances - they've a medical exam room on site, and it would be pretty awful to go all that way only to be told you can't fly. Or, indeed, that you're not well.

Flying alongside you will be an experienced test pilot; participants can opt for single or multiflight options.

On arrival at the airbase, you meet your pilot to discuss your flight plan. Then it's off to the locker room to suit up - complete with helmet visor and oxygen mask - before making your way up into the cockpit. Next thing you know it's all over.

Well, it is supersonic.

* Prices, including accommodation, start at $23,000 (€18,200). See www.incredible-adventures.com