After seeing his first aircraft flying above his school in around 1910, Ashburner knew where he wanted to be. In this archive recording, we hear of how Ashburner learnt to fly in the Royal Flying Corp during the First World War and stories of his time as a club flyer in the 1930s. Ashburner goes on to paint a picture of civil aviation on the eve of the Second World War from his seat in Air Traffic Control first at Croydon and then at Heston Airport.

World War II gave Ashburner the chance to become a full-time pilot once more, this time as a ferry pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary. Ashburner describes the aircraft he flew during the war and retells some of the stories from that period of his career.

PLEASE NOTE: We apologise for the poor quality of this archive recording.

The recording was made at the Royal Aeronautical Society on 6 December 1971, the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.