The British aircraft industry and British military aviation were born on the Isle of Sheppey, hence why it’s of national and international significance. A handful of pioneers came to this quiet corner of Kent at a time when the government had decided no practical applications existed for heavier than air machines – considered simply to be the preserve of rich eccentrics.

At the start of 1909 the Short brothers – Horace, Eustace and Oswald, balloon engineers to the Aero Club of Great Britain – were invited by the Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) to build, under contract, six Wright Flyer aircraft. Sheppey was the perfect location for their venture; flat, windy and close to London and it was here they set up Britain's first aircraft factory.

In May1909 the Wright brothers were taken to Sheppey by Charles Rolls, of Rolls Royce fame, to finalise the contract. They were more than happy with what they saw. Being ‘off the beaten track’ meant the Wright’s precious invention was protected from industrial spies.

In April 1909 Claude Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) had already become the first Briton to fly in Britain taking off from Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin-Farman aircraft to fly some 500 yards (450 m). By October he had won the Daily Mail’s £1,000 prize, flying the first circular mile in a British aircraft. These feats led to Brabazon being awarded Pilot's certificate No1.

Thanks to the Aero Club and the generosity of Frank McClean (later Sir Francis) who funded the conversion of a golf course into Britain's first airfield and underwrote Shorts’ production of their own aircraft, had become the focus for adventurers, aviation enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. By the beginning of 1910, on the drier site at Eastchurch, some eighteen sheds had been erected by enthusiastic engineers, including Cecil and Percy Grace, Leo Jezzi, Hon. Maurice Egerton, Alec Ogilvie, Mortimer Singer, A E George and Howard Wright. All were set on taking to the skies in their own machines.

The Shorts factory buildings and Aero Club sheds were soon well-established, with Shorts producing their first independently designed machines. Shorts also constructed machines designed by others, most notably Lt JW Dunne's inherently stable tailless, swept wing aircraft developed secretly but then dropped by the War Office. This first flew at Eastchurch in March 1910 and was the world's first ‘flying wing’ laying down the aerodynamic principles used in Concorde and ‘stealth’ aircraft.

In 1911 the government's failure to embrace aviation produced a strong protest from Eastchurch. Frank McClean flew his seaplane from Sheppey up the Thames Estuary and Through Tower Bridge. He then went under those bridges upstream to finally land outside the Houses of Parliament! He'd made his point in a most spectacular fashion.

When Claude Graham-White won the second Gordon Bennett air race held at Belmont Park New York it became Britain's privilege to decide on the venue for the third race. The Aero Club chose Eastchurch and on 1st July 1911 a large audience watched the racing from the slopes of Standford Hill.

But that’s not the end of the story. Shorts progress continued with the world's first successful twin-engined aircraft. The proximity of the Naval Dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham stimulated the design and construction of the first seaplanes. Several Army officers also arrived at Eastchurch and learned to fly, but it was not until Frank McClean undertook to train four Naval Officers at no cost to the Navy that there was any official Service involvement.

A reluctant Admiralty asked for four unmarried volunteers who had to accept, as conditions of their training would learn to fly during six months leave, would not wear uniform and would never command a warship. Moreover, if they crashed a machine they would have to pay for it. There were 200 volunteers! The chosen four were successful and their training led to the formation of the first military flying school. In January 1912 one of the four, Lieutenant Charles Samson, became the first to take off in an aircraft from a warship – HMS Africa moored in Sheerness harbour. It was a feat he repeated when he became the first in the world to fly an aeroplane from a moving ship (HMS Hibernia), at the Fleet Review in May 1912.

With the First World War on the horizon, the military application of aviation came to the fore. After an unsuccessful amalgamation with the Army in the formation of the Royal Flying Corps, Eastchurch was established as a founding station of the Royal Naval Air Service, a forerunner of today’s Royal Air Force. Commander Samson conducted trials of bomb dropping sights and equipment at Eastchurch and attempted to perfect the art of night landings (often without using lights!)

At the outbreak of hostilities Samson led the "Eastchurch" (Mobile) Squadron RNAS to Ostend to conduct the first combat operations of British aircraft overseas. It was Samson's squadron who carried out the first strategic bombing mission in history – on German Zeppelin sheds in 1914. In 1915 Samson took the "Eastchurch" Squadron out to the Dardenelles for air operations against the Turks.

Eastchurch briefly housed No. 266 Squadron during the Battle of Britain and suffered a series of air raids, providing an attractive target to marauding Luftwaffe aircraft because of its easy flying distance from France and Belgium. It still bears the scars!

After the Second World War, Eastchurch was handed to the Home Office. The old site was used as a prison farm, yet many original buildings remain. These include a First World War store, six Harbrow hangars dating from around 1911, aircraft workshops dating from about 1912 and a large First World War hangar.

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