A YOUNGSTER impressed his friends by being whisked home from school in a helicopter after winning a national competition.

Dudley Snook, a pupil at Stockton-on-the-Forest Primary School, near York, was picked up from outside the school gates yesterday after winning the competition run by the Little Big Food Company.

Dudley, aged ten, from Warthill, chose two friends - Dominic Bell and Guy Gilbert, also aged ten, - to travel with him in the helicopter along with his mum, Carolyn.

The journey lasted about 25 minutes and took the children around York two or three times.

Carolyn said: "They all had permanent smiles on their faces when they came back and Dudley has decided he now wants to own his own helicopter."

Updated: 11:45 Thursday, September 19, 2002