English: Aviation in Britain Before the First World War

A close up of Frank Cody (the youngest son and Cody's and Lela's only natural son - see below for further details) in school uniform sitting at the controls of Cody aircraft mark IC (Cathedral - so named because of its size and the size of the hangar it required and the katahedral (lower at the wing tips) arrangement of the wings) which is in the shed.

Lela Cody's real name was Elizabeth King nee Davis. When her and Cody met (1890 / 1891) he had recently split up from his American wife Maud Lee and she was married with four children Lizzy, Edward, Leon and Vivian. Like their mother her children were soon enamoured with Cody, the three boy's joined Lela and Cody on stage with Leon and Vivian taking the name Cody and pretending to be his sons, whilst Edward took up the name Leroy and pretended to be Lela's nephew. Cody's only natural son was Frank. This is very different from the story that both Cody and Vivian told. In their version Cody met Lela when he was transporting horses from America to Britain to be sold to her father (he actually was a horse dealer, who numbered the Royal Stud amongst his clients). Cody's lack of a divorce caused problems for his family, as he died intestate, allowing Maud, after a very lengthy legal battle, to make a successful claim for part of his estate.

Frank joined the RFC and was killed in air combat in France 1917 giving his family the dubious honour of having the first recorded instance where both father and son were killed in the air. Vivian worked for the RAE for forty years ending up Head of the Fabric Shop until retirement. Leon worked in a sharp shooting act for a while before joining the Royal Navy working on kite balloons, at the end of the First World War he joined Handley-Page. Edward Leroy carried on working in the theatre for many years.

It was in this aircraft that Cody made the first passenger carrying flight in Britain (Colonel Capper on the 14th August 1909) and several record breaking flights including one cross-country of around forty miles and lasting an hour and three minutes, passing over Aldershot, Camberley, Fleet, Farnham and Farnborough on the 8th September 1909. This was the furthest cross-country flight that had ever been made, anywhere in the world and the longest flight in time and distance in the British Empire. Only six other pilots and four types of machine had flown over forty miles anywhere in the world and all of these were aerodrome circuits not cross-country flights.