IT is 62 years since the first official Farnborough Airshow but the earliest regular aircraft display in Britain dates from 1920.

This was two years after the Royal Air Force (RAF) was founded and 12 years after Samuel Cody made the first powered flight in Britain on the common where the airport now stands.

In 1920, the RAF held an RAF Pageant at Hendon in north London and it became an annual event that lasted until 1937.

The Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) set it up.

Each year’s display lasted a day and in 1932 35 planes were exhibited by 16 companies.

The show stopped after 1937 and because of the Second World War, did not return until 1946 when the show took place an airfield in Radlett, Hertfordshire that year and in 1947.

The show was moved to the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough in 1948 and was held every year until 1962, when it became every other year.

Debut

In the second Farnborough Airshow in 1949, the Comet, the world’s first jet airliner, made its debut.

At the 1952 show, the announcer shouted ‘look out!’ over the PA system moments before a Sea Vixen plane crashed and killed 29 spectators, as well as the pilot John Derry and his onboard observer Tony Richards.

Another 63 spectators were injured before a crowd of 120,000, which included Mr Derry’s wife.

Mr Derry had become the first person to break the sound barrier in 1948 while a test pilot.

American magazine Time ran a detailed description of the crash in its report of the show.
"In spite of this spectacular human tragedy, the show was an aeronautical and military success," the magazine reported.

"Distinguished foreigners from 94 countries, including top aviation men of the western world, swarmed out of London with hordes of eager Britons.

Gigantic county fair

Farnborough turned into a gigantic county fair as families picnicked on the grass or watched from the tops of cars.

By that year, the format of the show was well established.

The custom of flying in over the Swan Inn in Farnborough Road was used in 1954 when the British-built Comet took part.

The SBAC continued to grow.

In 1947 it listed 410 members and in 1964, when it was renamed the Society of British Aerospace Companies, it had 535.

Before the RAF formed the Red Arrows, their precursors the Yellowjacks flew at the show in that year.

Concorde

In 1970, Concorde flew in public for the first time before it spent 30 years crossing the Atlantic at supersonic speeds.

In the 1970s and 1980s the show took on an international element and was renamed Farnborough International Airshow.

In 1974, an American spy plane, Blackbird, did a fly-by at the show having left from America and broken the New York to London speed record on the trip.

In the dying days of the Cold War in 1988, the Soviet Air Force brought three MiG fighter jets to the airshow, the first time an air force from behind the Iron Curtain visited.