Paperback - 160 pages - 250 mm x 170 mm

Numerous Black & White Photographs

Within the pages of Eheda - Glamorgan Aviation is the history of early flight within the county, from the pioneer ballooning days to the dawn of the Second World War.

The first attempts at manning flight in Glamorgan took place in October 1802, when a hydrogen balloon built by Francis Barrett took off from Swansea. There were many other attempts at flight by balloon from both within and around the county over the next century, some ending in triumph and others in tragedy. By the end of the nineteenth century, parachutists were becoming not an uncommon sight within the country, but it was to be the Willows airships, built in Cardiff, that were to bring the country to the forefront of aviation. At a period when the design of the aeroplane was still in a primitive state, airships were deemed to be the way forward for aviation and E.T.Willows designed a series of successful examples.

In 1911 the first aeroplane to fly over Glamorgan took off from the beach at Oxwich Bay, Gower. The aeroplane, a Bleriot XI, was owned by a local Swansea man and it was the first of many aeroplanes to make flights over the county. By the end if the First World War a series of cheaply available ex-Air Force aircraft meant that many people could afford to buy an aeroplane and during this period there were many organised displays and exhibitions flights. From joy flights to the National Aviation Days of Alan Cobham, the aeroplane became a more regular sight over Glamorgan.