Most men will admit to a childhood filled with dreams of getting behind the wheel of some serious earth-moving equipment. And a visit to the JCB factory in Staffordshire seems to indicate Prince William is among them.
In his capacity as a trainee search and rescue pilot the action-man Prince has access to lots of high-tech equipment. But he still looked as excited as any youngster when he was invited to take the controls of a digger.
His turn at the wheel, which marked production of the company's 750,000th machine, was followed by a walkabout to greet hundreds of enthusiastic schoolchildren.
Showing the warm touch that he's inherited from his mother Diana, the Prince spent a while laughing and joking with the youngsters. His tour came shortly after it was revealed William is a user of social networking site Facebook.
According to Daily Express reports he recently changed his moniker on the page from Wills Wombat after fans deluged him with copious amounts of unsolicited fan mail.