History of air travel [audio 30min]

As well as its collection of military aeroplanes, Britain's Imperial War Museum, at Duxford, near Cambridge, is home to many historically important civil aircraft. Journalist John McCarthy visits the airfield and hears about the connections between the forces' planes and those used by the airlines, and how the famous wartime bomber, the Lancaster, became the York in post-war civilian life. McCarthy is joined by Richard Ashton, the museum director; Ken Pettit, a member of the Duxford Aviation Society; Audrey Cartmell, a former 'star girl', who tells of her days as an air stewardess on the Comet 1; Brian Barnett, a passenger in Comet 4 on the first transatlantic jet flight; and John Hutchinson, former Concorde pilot.