" There is now one month to go until the start of 'Aviation Comes of Age' and I am looking forward to welcoming you to the course.
From 20 October, we will be looking at the fascination - tinged with apprehension - of flight before, during and after the First World War. We will be exploring how aviation sparked the imagination of the public, engineers, entrepreneurs and, of course, the military.
As with other courses on this platform, the course will take place online and will consist of a variety of videos, articles and discussions. Unlike most courses offered, this course is a collaborative effort, produced by the University of Birmingham in association with the BBC and the RAF Museum. Throughout the course we will be looking at some of the myths and legends that have grown up around aviation and attempting to get to the bottom of what happened and why the myths grew.
In the first week we will examine the early days of flight and how the early pioneers taught themselves to fly, and to achieve increasingly impressive results from their primitive machines. We will also start exploring military interest in aviation and how this was viewed in the services at the time.
As the course progresses will look at military and technological innovation and see how the war in the air was matched by an arms race in the laboratories and factories. We will also examine how much the resulting arms race changed forever the society in which we live and the impact on civilians generally and women in particular - they had all become workers and targets at the same time as warfare became ‘total’.
In the meantime, you may find it helpful to start thinking through just how you think of aviation from its birth to the mid 1920s - what images come to mind and where did they come from? Please also feel free to read around the subject looking at published works, material online and anything on the experiences of early aviators and the people who supported them.
There is still time to invite friends and colleagues to enrol on the course and take part alongside you. Having the support of people you know can really enrich the experience of studying online. As a reminder, the course page where they can enrol can be found here:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ww1-aviationThere will be plenty of opportunity to interact with other learners once the course begins, if you wish. In the meantime, feel free to use the hashtag #FLaviation for any discussions in social networks.
The course is due to begin on 20 October and I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I and my colleagues here at Birmingham are. We will contact you again a week before the course starts, and will also send a welcome note as soon as we get underway.
If you have any queries or feedback in the meantime, I won’t personally be able to field them, but please take a look at FutureLearn’s extensive FAQs:
https://about.futurelearn.com/faq/Best wishes,
Dr Peter Gray
Senior Research Fellow in Air Power studies
University of Birmingham "
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