Flights of Inspiration

"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." Sir Winston Churchill's homage to the pilots of the Battle of Britain could just have easily applied to "the other few": men like Brabazon, Rolls, Sopwith, Grace, and McClean, who inspired Britain to take to the skies by their exploits on and from the Isle of Sheppey a century ago. It all began at Muswell Manor near Leysdown in May 1909, then subsequently at Eastchurch, where Churchill himself took flying lessons. This is the story of those intrepid aviation pioneers, coupled with personal memories of life in the birthplace of British aviation in the first half of the 20th Century.