I've got an 'A' Level
It's a shame that one of the world's most eminent physicists doesn't understand that plummetting at the same velocity as the aircraft you happen to be floating around in is not the same as zero gravity. "I could have gone on and on" he said... presumably, right up to the the point where the "zero gravity" caused him to hurtle into the ground.
Or perhaps he's trying to popularise science.
Mind you, I didn't understand "A Brief History of Time", so who am I to criticise?