With Southampton Airport on the doorstep, Hedge End is also surrounded on all sides by landmarks of aviation heritage – from airfields in Hamble and at Marwell, to aircraft manufacturers in Hamble and Woolston, and with many famous planes and celebrities of the aviation world claiming a connection to south Hampshire.

So it would be surprising if some interest in either the history or the industry of building planes hadn’t rubbed off on the town – and with the county celebrating 2010 as the Centenary of Flight in Hampshire there should be something for everyone in the programme of events and lectures planned for the year.

2010 is being celebrated as Centenary Year because one hundred years ago Edwin Rowland Moon flew his homemade Moonbeam II aircraft on what was then a meadow on North Stoneham Farm, later becoming part of Southampton Airport.

With three airfields in Hamble 1913-1984, and Hamble also home to six aircraft manufacturers and 11 flying and engineering training organisations (both civil and military), Marwell Park also boasted an airfield during the Second World War and Woolston the famous Supermarine factory.

Notable names associated with flying history and working in or visiting the area include author Nevil Shute who was a leading aeronautical engineer in the 1930s. In 1913 Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty was taken up in a Sopwith Biplane and ‘Jane’, the Second World War star of  Norman Pett’s ‘strip cartoon’ for the Daily Mirror was modelled on a real person – Christabel Drewry from Desborough Road, Eastleigh.

R J Mitchell designed not only the Spitfire but 23 other aircraft while at Supermarine, and W E Johns’s Biggles is based on a Wing Commander Wellesley Bigsworth whose name is recorded on the Great War service roll in West End Parish Centre.

Women played a major part too in the history of the aircraft industry locally. Amy Johnson was one of the women employed to ferry spitfires from the factories where they were made to RAF bases throughout the country – once crashing in Satchell Lane, Hamble. And Amelia Earhart landed on Southampton Water in 1928 after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic with a crew.

Flying boats have a long association with the area and gave the world the word ‘airport’ when in 1919 a Sealion aircraft landed after flying above Southampton Water and Southampton was declared the first ‘air port’ in the world.

Events scheduled for the year of celebration include a ‘Paper Planes Art Gallery Exhibition’ at Southampton City Art Gallery 28 February-25 April, and a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with a Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire in July. There are also plans for celebratory events to be held at Southampton Airport itself – an Easter extravaganza 2-4 April and a VIP opening of the new departure lounge.

There are lectures on women in aviation, on the Spitfire, on R J Mitchell himself, on flying boats and all sorts of other aspects of the history of aviation in south Hampshire.

Ex-RAF and retired BOAC/BA pilot, Ted Bearman, said, ‘I am really looking forward to going to the events and lectures arranged for the year. It is a fabulous programme with something to interest everyone.

‘My uncle worked in one of the aircraft factories in Hamble during the war and so I will be very interested in learning more about his work.

‘His experience and seeing the flying boats over Southampton Water inspired me to go into flying myself.’

For full details of events and lectures in the 2010 Centenary of Flight programme see Hampshire County Council and Southampton County Council websites. Eastleigh Borough Council also has a Commemorative Leaflet viewable on line.

Photo from Flickr, by HyperStatto.