Doug Hughes, 61, flew through protected airspace to land a gyrocopter on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C to protest against government corruption.

Hughes, a Florida mailman, landed with 535 letters (with $250 worth of stamps) calling for a “voter’s rebellion”.

The letters were strapped to the landing gear of the gyrocopter in boxes, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

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He said the only part of the plan hatched over two years which he was afraid of, was losing his nerve.

“I would rather die in the flight than live to be 80 years old and see this country fall,” he said in a video made before his flight.

He was arrested at gunpoint on the lawns of the Capitol, which houses the United States Congress.

MORE: Gyrocopter bearing Postal Service logo lands on the Capitol’s West Lawn http://t.co/YJtxNVv6VJ pic.twitter.com/ljgnGTC7zm

— The Hill (@thehill) April 15, 2015

A witness, Richard Burns, 27, who was at the Capitol to lobby for marijuana told the Tampa Bay Times. 

“I don’t know whatever it was he was doing but I support him,” he said.  

Hughes’ letters called for changes to lobbying practices in the US which “empower special interests”.

“This is not democracy even if the ritual of elections is maintained,” his letters state.

Hughes arranged the stunt so that news organisations and authorities were warned prior to him landing.

UPDATE: Small copter lands on Capitol grounds, sparking security concerns http://t.co/OEQFLTzrIY pic.twitter.com/yrNZOPwJ4z

— The Hill (@thehill) April 15, 2015

He said he was urged to conduct his protest after his son crashed his car head-on into another vehicle killing both drivers in an apparent suicide.

“He paid far too high a price for an unimportant issue,” Hughes said. “But if you’re willing to take a risk, the ultimate risk, to draw attention to something that does have significance, it’s worth doing.”

The gyrocopter, a single engine, open-cockpit aircraft that has a helicopter rotor for lift and a second propeller for thrust, was painted with the US Postal Service emblem on its tail.