If you were Tom Cruise and you were looking for two passenger planes to blow up in your latest blockbuster, a Chadwell Heath carpet shop may not seem like the best place to look – but looks can be deceiving.

Akbar Ali owns Carpets Direct, in High Road, but he also runs scrap aircraft company Imperial Air Salvage.

In a project that took more than a month to complete and cost about £400,000, Akbar, of Becontree Heath, handed over his Boeing 737 and a BAE 146 to Warner Brothers, which is producing Cruise’s film, All You Need Is Kill, set for release next year.

Unfortunately, Akbar was not allowed on set at the same time as the film stars, including Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton, but hopes one day to brush shoulders with actors.

He witnessed his planes blow up first hand but thinks it will look better on screen.

“It isn’t as you would imagine it in real life where the whole thing blows up and there is nothing left,” he said. “It is exciting but it is completely different.”

He added: “I have always enjoyed seeing things explode.”

The 39-year-old said much of the plane’s interior was gutted, including the seats, to make it lighter before it is exploded.

Getting the planes to the set near Watford, north London, meant dismantling larger parts, transporting them separately by lorry and then putting them back together again only to see them go up in a fiery blaze.

Luckily, he has still has a Boeing 747 and even a fighter jet left to play with, although the Boeing is marked for a fiery end in an upcoming Sky documentary movie.

Warner Brothers is also talking with Akbar about future projects. He said: “Whenever they need anything they come to us rather than us go to them. It is a beautiful thing when they do approach us.”