Ticket to Ride

Alan Cobham formed the Berkshire Aviation Company providing pleasure flights in an Avro 504K biplane from May 1919.

(From left to right) Alan Cobham, Jack Holmes and Fred Holmes standing in front of their Avro 504K biplane while in the Berkshire Aviation Company in 1919.

He founded the company with Fred and Jack Holmes who had been looking for another pilot to join them.

They started by converting their biplane to a three seater, then toured Great Britain, giving many people their first flight in an aeroplane.

Despite a profitable start with 5,000 flights in 1919 alone, the company went into debt.

A despondent Alan Cobham, left the company getting a job back on the ground in the linen trade.