Say Hamble and you think of water sports and boats. Yet few British towns have been associated more with the history of daring young men and their flying machines that this yachting mecca.

Even the first flight out of Hamble goes back to the eighteenth century. What other place in the world could claim that?

Up up and away...

The contraption was an early version of a hot air balloon. It smoked up, not exactly like a rocket, into the Hamble sky in 1786 - thirteen years before Napoleon came to power - stoked incredibly by a bonfire of straw and chopped wool. It was last seen wobbling towards Portsmouth. Hopefully it was unmanned because there is no record of Hampshire’s first parachute jump that year.

A venture into heavier than air flight...

In 1911, Hamble started to build its own locally designed plane, the HL-1, a 150 hp two-seater with a heady top speed of 65 mph. However, in a manner of speaking, aeronautics didn’t really get off the ground till the first world war. The famous aviator, A V Roe, from Manchester, chose the village for his second factory, which was built between Hamble Lane and Southampton Water. It had its own airfield which ended at the water’s edge which offered a gentler alternative for those who got it wrong.

Villagers were not wildly keen to be part of the new age. At the time, Hamble was not familiar with the word unemployment. But the people knew an enormous noise when they heard one, and were deafened by it every day.

To work the new factory, experts were brought from Manchester. Most workers commuted daily from Woolston.

Avros produced an early Sopwith with a somewhat earth-hugging name of Tractor Biplane. Despite the label, the government liked the contraption and Winston Churchill was despatched to Hamble to brave a flight. Times have changed - it’s hard to imagine a cabinet minister these days acting as a sort of test pilot. But Churchill flew over the Solent. He liked the experience so much that he took flying lessons at Hamble.

Perhaps the opportunity of relatively soft crash landings was a reason, but the first world war turned seaside Hamble into a major aircraft producer. Avro 504s were built - as many as a plane a day. And seaplanes with 150-hp engines and ‘Hamble Babies’, and a Fairey ‘Compania’ which worked from a ship converted as an aircraft carrier.

The burgeoning plane-makers built large hangars for sea planes and flying boats where Shell and BP are to be found now. As wonderful as the end of the war was for everyone else, it was not a blessing to Hamble high flyers. Faireys kept producing warplanes, but with far fewer workers. The names of their successes are revered by enthusiasts today - Sea Foxes, Fly Catchers, Fairey Foxes, Battles, and the torpedo-carrying Swordfish.

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