On June 5th 1783, one hundred and seventy years ago, almost to the very day of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the first public “aerostatic experiments” were made which were to herald the dawn of a diuturnity of human endeavour.

In the Hodgson-Cuthbert Aeronautical Collection the Royal Aeronautical Society possesses a direct link spanning those one hundred and seventy years, a link which joins those wondrous days of long ago when people cried “What on Earth in Heaven is that?” with the present welfare days in which many have learnt how to move Heaven and Earth simultaneously atomically.