Flying Across Britain With Arthur WiIlliams

In his beloved, and very yellow, 1943 Piper J3 Cub, Arthur Williams kicks off his aerial adventure in the part of the UK he knows and loves the best. From the beautiful hilltop airfield of Compton Abbas, to the ‘party Jumbo’ of Cotswold Airport, this is a journey full of enthusiasts and fanatics. Think aviation is all about concrete runways and check-in queues? Think again.

Arthur is in the south-east of England tackling some of the world’s busiest airspace and, on the Isle of Sheppey finding the unlikely spot where British aviation first got off the ground. North of London, there’s the home of airships – ancient and modern – and, in the region that led the fight in the Battle of Britain, one massive tick for Arthur’s bucket list… a flight in a Spitfire.

Six hours and three refueling stops later, Arthur makes it north of the border for his greatest flying challenge: the mountains, lochs and sea of West Scotland. From landing a sea plane on Britain’s largest lake, to finding a plane wreck off the coast of Oban, this is a dramatic journey that takes Arthur all the way to the only landing spot on the Isle of Mull.

Nowhere was the aerial firepower of World War II more concentrated than along the east coast of England. Explore an immense aviation story, and four wartime airfields that now feel very different indeed. Deep in Lincolnshire, East Kirkby still celebrates the heroes of the 1940s, whereas Lakenheath thunders with the noise of F-15 fighters, and the unmistakeable presence of thousands of Americans.