British Civil Aviation in 1908

30 May
The first British-held international balloon race.

21 June
A suffragette uses a dirigible (steerable airship) to drop leaflets on the House of Commons in London.

8 October
Griffith Brewer becomes the first Briton to fly as a passenger in an aeroplane, when Wilbur Wright takes him flying at Le Mans in France.

Brewer was a pioneer english aviator and balloonist, who made his first balloon flight in 1891. He met Wilbur Wright in France, in 1908, and became a very close friend and supporter of the Wrights.

4 December
Englishman J.T.C. Moore Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) makes a flight of 410 metres (1,350 feet) in a Voisin aeroplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France. He later brings the aircraft over to England, to the Aero Club grounds at Shellness.