The skies of Britain, for millions of years, have been comparatively peaceful. Up there lived the birds, the odd bat, the moon and the stars.
There was absolutely zero chance of ever getting up there. A few visionaries tried, of course; Daedalus even managed it mythically, by all accounts, but should really have chosen his materials a bit better. Any engineer worth his salt, ancient or modern, will spot the wax-sun thing a mile away.
Da Vinci drew such exquisite blueprints for flight that we sit and marvel at how similar to our biplanes his drawings are, and how he conceived of the rotary blade which would one day grace our helicopters.
And there were hot air balloons: but most of us tended to worship the skies, rather than launch assaults on them.
The Wright Brothers demystified flight with all speed in 1903, and it was not long before the dogs of war commandeered planes and airships in their service.
In a part of the world where hurricanes, floods and famine are rare, we looked up into that blue beyond and realised for the first time that it might hold a threat.
The first world war brought airships: regular raids from January 1915, two a month. William Leefe-Robinson managed to shoot one down using new incendiary bullets: the fire, it is said, could be seen from a distance of 100 miles. The planes followed hot on their heels, Gothas and Giants, and people became accustomed to looking up to do a quick identification.
It was in the lull between the wars – 1930 to be exact – that aircraft engineer Richard Falrey paid the Vicar of Harmondsworth £15,000 for a plot of 150 acres on the outskirts of London, near Staines. It had just one grass runway, and buildings which today’s Heathrow site describes as ‘hastily erected’.
Naturally, Mr Churchill had his eyes on the aerodrome, and its surroundings, which were centred round the little village of Heath Row.
The land was requisitioned. And if you go to the nerve centre of operations, buried in the cliffs at Dover in Kent, you will see Heath Row alongside Biggin Hill, East Malling and all the other RAF aerodromes, on that fascinating map where women used to push little aeroplane models around to keep track of their whereabouts.
The skies were very full. Brits witnessed bombers, dogfights, more action than most of us would like to witness in a lifetime.
In January 1946 – just 30 years after that first airship raid – Heath Row was officially handed over to the Air Ministry as the UK’s first civil airport.
Twenty one years later, my husband and I were born. I squinted from my pram at jumbos heading for exotic destinations. I used to watch my grandmother, down from Hull for a holiday, sit out with her cup of tea to watch Concorde which appeared every day at 11 o’clock sharp.
The engine of a plane has always been a source of indescribable comfort to me: an early experience and a sign of promise, all rolled into one. When I moved to Cornwall I hankered after the sound, and since my return I adore the earliest plane of the day, before six, and as I walk the dog in my forest I look up and watch the planes soaring and dream a little dream.
I have always yearned to know who they were carrying, and where they were going.
And now, technology has caught up with my dreams.
I was browsing my iPhone apps the other day when I happened upon what seemed to me a small miracle.
It is called Plane Finder. And, free of charge, it will plot every plane flying over my head on a satellite map.
Not only that, but if one taps one of the little red plane icons which are shown, circling over my town, one can get its flight code. And from that it’s a mere shuttle flight to a range of search engines which tell you what kind of a plane it is, and who owns it.
I brandished the iPhone under Phil’s nose. “Look!” I squawked, almost incoherent with triumph.
It took him a moment to register, and his son was only split seconds behind him. And then, inexplicably, my laptop was no longer on my lap and my son had cornered the iPhone, and Felix was reading out codes and Phil was sourcing the plane, and it had all the charge of an aeroplane cockpit, although none of the rather nice airline food.
So now we have a new toy. As I type we have an Easyjet over us, flying out of London Gatwick, and a BA Boeing 777 a bit further away, and over Heathrow there must be a cluster of ten of 15 craft and every time I tap it I get a different plane, from Singapore Airlines to Quatar Airways.
It is, for a plane worshipper like me, quite literally breathtaking.
Kate Shrewsday 
I have always loved watching aeroplanes. Before security took over the airports we would drive down and park directly, outside the fencing, under the flight path of the planes taking off. Wow! Now, I think if we get another life after this one I would definitely learn to fly. Your Plane Finder sounds like quite the thing too.
You and me both, Denise: I’ve had one flying lesson and I’d love to follow it up. We, too, used to go and watch the planes. Amazing that a hunk of metal that big can be in the sky at all!
Plane finder: it’s a dream come true 🙂
The Hub found that same site yesterday! And showed it to me with the same excitement! I didn’t wrest the computer from him, though; I went and hung out my washing.
Geek 😀
I am that, Tilly 😀 And you have both Manchester and Liverpool airports at your disposal, the skies must be just humming up there!
Although I am sure washing has its own charms.
What a triumph that you found it Kate, Phil and son may have taken over, but you got there first.
I did, Rosemary, and suddenly dog walks, when I look up in the sky and see the tiny planes in the Heathrow stack, have acquired a new electricity 😀
Even looking at planes scares me. I can junderstand the fascination with the app, but nobody would have to fight me to get it!
Best to keep the eyes down low, Speccy 🙂 There’s plenty to keep us occupied on terra firma…
We have everything on the surface as well as underwater plotted the same way. Much more than a toy – the most sophisticated spy/defense system ever imagined. From Kitty Hawk in 1903 to the moon landing in 1969 really is an unimaginable leap in technology that we take for granted.
It is quite astounding, isn’t it, Carl? You remind me of parking up on the cliffs at Dover, overlooking the port, and listening to the conversations between boats on a nearby radio amateur’s rig…
Lovely read. Amazing at how at home an American can feel on British soil. I’ve read so much of these places and events.
Nice to know about the ap. My son will love it.
Blog on …
Jamie, how lovely to have you visit. Musingbymoonlight is a wonderful read. Blogging and other social media seem to be making the world smaller all the time…..hope your son enjoys the app. It’s magic 🙂
Da plane! Da plane!
Have FUN with your new discovery . . . fly high!
Thanks Nancy 😀 We will!
How do they think of these apps? This one sounds brilliant, I’ve a friend who will absolutely love it. (I’d get it but my phone is so old that it has just one app – if someone phones me it makes a whining noise).
Good not to have put on the ‘one ring to bind them all’, Tinman: Smartphones, like Tolkein’s ring, are seductive and there must be an app to make one invisible on them somewhere: but they’re addictive beyond words.
This app is worth being addicted to, though…just clocked the Heathrow-Portugal flight overhead…
(Tilly’s right, I’m a geek)
Well, “rining” serves me right for trying to be smart….
I remember having planes pointed out to me as a child… as if it was something exciting… but it didn’t really do it for me. I loved the hush of the sky after the large volcano ash eruption
as Carol Ann Duffy so deftly put it
SILVER LINING
Five miles up the hush and shush of ash,
Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate –
I could write my childhood there.
Selfish to sit in this garden listening to the past
(A gentleman bee wooing its flower, a lawnmower)
When the grounded planes mean ruined plans,
Holidays on hold, sore absences at weddings, funerals… wingless commerce.
But Britain’s birds sing in this spring
From Inverness to Liverpool, from Crieff to Cardiff
Oxford, Londontown, Land’s End to John O’ Groats.
The music’s silent summons,
That Shakespeare heard and Edward Thomas, briefly, us.
oh and this:
Thanks to Pink Floyd there for a starkly alternative perspective 😀
These great metal monsters won’t be around forever, I feel sure. The sky will be the birds again before you know it.
Beautiful, Pseu, thank you 🙂 The birds had it all to themselves again for a little while there, didn’t they?
Plane-spotting with a difference – I wonder why we find it so compelling, Kate? I’m off to download that app…
Enjoy, BB. Plane above me now off to Sao Paulo, Brazil….
That is awesome about Plane Finder, I had no idea there was such a thing! Maybe one day I’ll get to browse through all these new apps if I ever get a fancy phone, mine’s just the basics and I didn’t even get a phone until this year. (though I do have texting now, which is helpful) Sounds cool!
Hi Brittany 🙂 thanks for coming over to take a look! There’s me going on, without considering people who haven’t got access to an iPhone! You can find an online version of this at http://planefinder.net/, and if an android becomes an option Plane Finder do a free app for them too I think: I found this.
I love The Shyness Project. It shows real courage and integrity. (And a great writing style too!)
All right cool!
Thank you! 🙂 It’s been a really good experience for me and I am surprising myself all the time. Thanks for subscribing too!
I look forward to reading your posts on this exciting journey of yours, Brittany 🙂
you have just given me the absolute reason to buy an i phone
from the child who would watch in the classroom (instead of paying attention) the planes line up across the sky for landing, whose idea of heaven was to go to the cargo section over a weekend with my dad, to the young woman who had her first campari and saw her first concorde on the same day, to the woman whose pulse beats to the throb of those huge engines; you are offering me a toy I’ll love
Ah, someone who shares my passion! I’m bemusing my tweet followers right now by tweeting flights that go over bound for South Africa! As I said to Brittany there’s an online site at planefinder.com. Enjoy, Sidey!
Most cool…I shall have to check out this app, esp right now as flight patterns seemed to have changed in my area. Great post, Kate ~
Thanks Angela, it’s a very cool app 🙂
Oh, wow, what a Find, Kate! Thanks for sharing this…I can just imagine all that overwhelming male pleasure 😀
It was very funny, the speed with which the operation was commandeered! Great fun, though, Naomi.
I’m one of those look-up-at-the-sky-wistfully types who asks the question, “Where are they going?” I like to fly – but it’s best not to watch too intently through the window: I’ve seen more than my fair share of near misses. Crowded skies indeed.
Oooh, yes, Tooty, near misses: how many documentaries have I obsessed over on that subject? If you use the paid version, the app gives one altitudes as well. The word ‘stack’ is incredibly appropriate here…