CENTENARY OF POWERED FLIGHT IN UK

Early day motion 2318, tabled 21 October 2008 by Gerald Howarth (Conservative). Signed by 52 members.

That this House salutes the achievement of Samuel Franklin Cody on becoming the first man in the United Kingdom to achieve sustained powered flight when on 16th October 1908 he flew 1,390 feet from Laffan's Plain, Farnborough, Hampshire; acknowledges that Cody's epic flight, followed by other pioneers like A. V. Roe, Robert Blackburn, Tommy Sopwith, the Short Brothers and Geoffrey de Havilland, marked the start of a century of aviation development in which Britain became, and remains, a world leader; and urges hon. and right hon. Members to visit the full-size Cody replica painstakingly built by the volunteers of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, housed at Farnborough, and the exhibition in the Upper Waiting Hall sponsored by the principal successor company to the early pioneers, BAE Systems, to celebrate this most significant centenary.

Signatures by party: Labour 21, Conservative 16, Liberal Democrat 9, DUP 3, Independent 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.