Monsoons and cold weather have forced an Army pilot to abandon his bid to fly around the world in an autogyro.

Warrant Officer Barry Jones, based at Dishforth, North Yorkshire, set off on Expedition Global Eagle in April.

He reached India, but was grounded by the worst monsoons to hit the region in 40 years.

He left the autogyro in India and returned to England, hoping to resume the trip when the weather cleared up.

But the team now say that it would be impossible to fly the craft through the cold winter conditions.

A spokesman for the Global Eagle team said: "The unusually long monsoon now means that Global Eagle would not be in a position to fly safely over Canada and Greenland, as the predicted weather conditions in the winter make the risks unacceptable in the open cockpit of an autogyro."

Instead WO Jones, 37, is planning to fly Global Eagle to Sydney, Australia. He will travel to India later this month to service the aircraft and hopes to reach Sydney by the end of November.

It would be the first flight of an autogyro from the UK to Australia and would ensure that Global Eagle takes its place in aviation history.