MoD reveals £50k bill for Wills’s joy-rides

When it was revealed three months ago that Prince William had used an RAF Chinook helicopter for a series of joy rides around the country, including a trip to see his girlfriend Kate Middleton at her family home, eyebrows were raised. Now the Ministry of Defence has revealed the total cost of the jaunts: a cool £50,000.

The first sortie took place on April 2 when Prince William flew the helicopter over his father's country home in Highgrove, Gloucestershire. The flight, which lasted nearly three hours, cost £11,985. The trip to his cousin Peter Phillips's stag do on the Isle of Wight, and picking up Prince Harry in London on the way, was £8,716.

The following day, the prince once again got behind the controls of the helicopter and this time headed off to Bucklebury, Reading. The MoD says he landed the helicopter on "private land" during what was described as a "general handling" training flight. That private land belonged to the parents of Kate Middleton. The Prince is understood to have circled around the house at 300ft before touching down next to the house while his girlfriend and her parents watched. (Continued below)

The next controversial flight took place a day later when he flew to Hexham in Northumberland. Conveniently, this was where he was a guest at a wedding. The four-hour flight - described by the MoD as "general handling and low level" training - cost £18,522. His flight over the Queen's Sandringham home on April 9 was a snip at just £4,358.