How many children draw helicopters and aeroplanes dreaming of being pilots or designing their own aircraft one day?

Jason Hill was one such teenager, but he clung on to that vision through aeronautical engineering studies and work in the aviation industry.

His dream was revealed to the world on 7 December when the wraps came off a new helicopter designed by him.

"I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and jubilation," Mr Hill says about the grand unveiling. But creating a new helicopter has been a daunting process.

"The sheer volume of difficult things that need to be executed and coordinated makes the task seemingly impossible," says Mr Hill.

The five-seater Hill helicopter will be powered by a turbine engine, a small and light jet motor that drives the rotor blades. To keep the weight down the fuselage is made from carbon fibre.

However, with the UK in a cost of living crisis, it seems like a challenging time to launch a luxury product. The Hill machine has a price tag of almost £600,000 - cheap for a helicopter, but for most people completely unaffordable.

Nevertheless, there are buyers. Hill has chalked up 1,222 orders worth £540m. Those buyers have parted with non-refundable deposits of up to £100,000.

And that's all happened before the helicopter's first flight, projected for the middle of this year.

Of course, it's not just Hill that's able to sell luxury transport options.

California's Robinson has popularised helicopter flying with a family of small, two to five seat aircraft that have notched up nearly 14,000 sales for the manufacturer.

Robinson's R66 Turbine costs just over $1m (£790,000) and it sees orders increasing, growing from 101 helicopters in 2022, to a projected 120 units for 2023, and 150 in 2024.

The British Helicopter Association's chief executive Tim Fauchon doesn't dispute that helicopter ownership is for the wealthy. "If you're flying a helicopter you've got a bit of cash behind you."

However it still makes sense to shell out for such a machine when time is of the essence. "You buy a helicopter to save time, it's an efficient way of getting from A to B."

And private helicopter owners can recoup their costs by leasing their machine out to flying schools when they're not using it.

Also, appearing on the horizon, are fresh competitors for the helicopter business.