ON this day (March 20) in 1920, the first flight from London to South Africa took place.

Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand touched down at Youngsfield, Wynberg in a De Havilland DH9 - the first trans-Africa flight from London to Cape Town.

Several other British teams had set out to pioneer this new air route, but each had crashed and abandoned their effort. The pilots, who were knighted for their achievement, spent 109 hours and 30 minutes in the air, though the journey took 45 days.

The journey came 17 years after the very first flight by a controlled aircraft, when the Wright brothers achieved sustained controlled powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Cumbria’s history with aircraft goes back to the second World War.

In Carlisle, Kingstown Municipal Airport opened in the 1930s, and was later named as the RAF base.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, RAF Kingstown's runway was too small for bombers, so the Royal Air Force developed a new airstrip at Crosby-on-Eden to the east of Carlisle. The new facility came into operation in February 1941 for training operations, designating the station RAF Crosby-on-Eden.

 

READ MORE: Carlisle residents to remember RAF base 25 years after closure

 

After the War, the station became the home of No. 14 Maintenance Unit and occupied the various sites originally used by RAF Kingstown’s Elementary Flying Training School during World War II. The station closed 25 years ago.

Wigton’s Nelson Thomlinson School also employed a former RAF pilot as their head of History, later becoming the deputy headteacher.

Sydney R “Jimmy” James took part in a formation fly-past over Shropshire in 1943, right in the middle of the War.

 

READ MORE: Jimmie James - the RAF pilot who landed in Cumbria

 

Born in Madagascar, James graduated from Oxford University before becoming an aircraft instructor where he worked in reconnaissance, identifying targets such as the launching sites for the German V2 rockets.

James felt that he would stay in his role at Nelson Thomlinson for a few years after moving to Cumbria in 1953, however he stayed in the county, moving to Bolton Low Houses.

Some of his former pupils included newsreader Anna Ford and writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg.

In today’s nostalgia section, we look back at times when Cumbrians took to the skies. Keep an eye out to see if you recognise anyone.