LOS ANGELES - A great great grandmother from the US state of Utah has leapt into the record books by taking a paragliding flight to celebrate her 101st birthday.

Mary Allen Hardison was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records on Tuesday for the feat, undertaken after her 75-year-old son Allen went paragliding and she decided not to be beaten.

Four generations of her family - from children to great great grandchildren - were on hand to watch her take off, rigged up in tandem with a qualified instructor, on September 1 last year.

"I feel very humble in setting a new Guinness World Record. My desire is for the elderly to keep on going, do things as long as you are physically able. Be positive," she said in comments cited by Guinness.

"Friends don't like a grumpy person," she added. Explaining her motive more simply, she told local TV station KSL 5: "I don't want my son to do something that I can't."

Instructor Kevin Hintze described Hardison as "hardcore" after she encouraged him to have them loop and spin together, hundreds of feet up in the air near her home in Ogden, Utah.

Hardison, who says her more usual hobbies include knitting, said more elderly people should push themselves to keep having fun.

"When a person is busy, the hurts seem to ease up. If you are able and even older than I, then I'm happy for people to attempt to break my record. I promise the experience will be well worth it!"

Asked how she felt just after landing gently back on the ground, she told KSL 5: "How was it? I'm ready to go again!"