Others may have set records for height and distance but Major Julius Bonniksen believed flying would one day be as popular as driving, and devoted his life to bringing flying to the masses.

Events may have proved him wrong, but Maj Bonniksen succeeded in starting up his own aerodrome, parts of which still survive today and amateur historian Richard King of Radford Road, looked into the life of Leamington's aviation pioneer.

Julius Bonniksen was the son of Danish-born watchmaker Bahne Bonniksen, known for his invention of the 'karrusel' watch mechanism and to vintage car enthusiasts as the inventor of an early speedometer.

According to Mr King's research in phone directories the family moved to Leamington at around 1900, where they lived in Tachbrook Road. Mr Bonniksen patented his clock mechanism in 1906 and his speedometer in 1912, but it was during a trip to Schleswig-Holstein to visit relatives as hostilities were breaking out in summer 1914 that his son Julius attracted the attention of German soldiers. He was arrested and interrogated as a suspected spy but was allowed home where his experiences were recounted in the Courier on September 25, 1914.

Two years later in September 1916 the Courier reported that Bonniksen had gained his commission in the Royal Flying Corps and had recently been promoted from second air mechanic to first air mechanic and to sergeant at the front.

During the war he rose from the rank of private in the kite balloon section of the Royal Engineers to becoming a major in the Royal Air Force.

He became well-known among Leamington people after the war for running an aerodrome off Harbury Road but starting this enterprise required as much daring as piloting an aircraft. The Coventry Herald reported on January 10, 1930 how the young man was ready to "stake his all" to popularise civil flying in Warwickshire.

The article reads: "The experience he gained in the flying service convinced him that after the war, the aeroplane was going to be a machine of considerable commercial importance and that civil flying would, in time, become as popular as motoring. Since he left the RAF he has become more and more inclined to sink all other interests and launch out as a promoter of civil flying and the proprietor of a private aeroplane park and aerial-taxi drome."

Among Major Bonniksen's supporters was another former RAF man Sir Alan Cobham, whose Flying Circus visited the Harbury Lane airfield often during the following decade. Mr King's researches show the celebrated aviationist had begun thrilling audiences in the area as early as 1919.