Aviation at Woodley - Year by Year

Easter 1929 Airfield (then called Reading Aerodrome) opens.
Easter Monday - two serious accidents!
May 1929 Flying school in operation with 18 pupils.
Alan Cobham's Flying Circus visits Woodley.
1930 Reading Air Pageant.
Air Fete on Whit Monday attracted 20,000 people and included a parachute jump and flying upside down.
July 1930 First fatal accident.
1931 Gliding display.
1931 Douglas Bader crashed at Woodley.
1932 First cine-film of a parachute jump taken from another parachutist.
1933 Miles Hawk M.2 completed and flown.
1934 Reading Aero Club "at home". Woodley visited by Amy Johnson.
1935 Phillips & Powis Aeronautical School set up. Tommy Rose won the King's Cup air race in the Miles Falcon.
1936 Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, was at Woodley, and flew in the prototype M.11.
1937 The first Miles Magister christened by Blossom Miles.
1938 The Monarch,first aircraft to be designed by George Miles was a luxurious aircraft for private flying. With war looming, urgent need for a training aircraft for the RAF, the Kestrel was prepared for production.
1939 The Magister replacement design was stepped up. Factory urgently expands to meet wartime needs. By the outbreak of war, only 7 Masters complete.
1940 500 Masters delivered to RAF flying schools.
1941 Begin to develop the automatic pilot.
1942 Secret wind tunnel built behind farm buildings.
1943 Building for test pilots & emergency vehicles.
1944 Factory & RAF flying school operating at full capacity.
1945 Gemini makes it's first flight flown by F.G. Miles.
1946 Seven Martinets delivered to RAF. Cancellation of supersonic M.52 project.
1947 Aerovans and Marathons in production.
1948 Production of all Miles aircraft ceased.