A HIGH flier used strength and logic to complete an unusual challenge in Basingstoke.

James Wilson, who has completed than 1,600 skydives, became the first man to solve a Rubik’s Cube in a wind tunnel when he came to Airkix at the Basingstoke Leisure Park.

The 35-year-old, from Redhill, in Surrey, completed the challenge yesterday in three minutes and 16 seconds, and the high-flying challenge will now be lodged with the Guinness Book of World Records.

Mr Wilson is a regular at the £6million indoor skydiving facility, and came up with the idea while chatting with Simon Ward, chief executive at Airkix.

With the added pressure of a camera crew watching his every move, Mr Wilson held his midair position while completing the brain puzzle.

He said: “It was pretty good. I have always been able to do the Rubik’s Cube but not especially fast, and I had been practising in the last few weeks.

“I managed to get it down to one minute but when you are in the wind tunnel it is a lot more difficult. You have to hold it carefully while you do it or it will fly out of your hands.”

Mr Wilson said he is considering attempting the challenge in freefall from a plane.

The challenge has been successfully attempted before and in 2010, German skydiver Ludwig Fichte, did it after jumping from a plane in a rubber dinghy.

The cube, invented in 1974 by Professor Erno Rubik, became the world’s fastest-selling toy when it was first exported from Hungary in 1980.