British scientists and engineers were behind some of the world's greatest advances in aviation technology in the twentieth century. Without radar pilots would be flying blind. It was patented by Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt in 1935 and was perfected by Allied forces during the Second World War. Today, commercial and military aviation rely on radar to monitor and direct aircraft to avoid collisions and pilots use it to navigate in low visibility.

Sir Frank Whittle was the greatest aero-engineer of the twentieth century. The prototype jet engine that he designed in 1928 would become the basis for turbojets used on aircraft all over the world today. Whittle understood that aeroplanes travel much faster and further the higher they fly because there is less turbulence and so less resistance. The first aircraft were powered by piston-engine propellers that weren't designed to be used at high altitudes; the higher they went the worse they performed because of the thin air in the upper atmosphere. The engine Whittle designed allowed aeroplanes to climb higher and faster than ever before by using jet propulsion.

The test flight of the Gloster Pioneer in May 1941 proved that Whittle's engine performed beautifully and was a turning point in British and world aviation history. A few years later came the Gloster Meteor which was the first jet aircraft to be flown by the RAF and the first jet to hold the air speed record.

Today anyone can hop on a plane in the UK and land in the USA a few hours later, but this wouldn't be possible without the first record breaking flight of 1948. In July that year, the RAF flew six de Havilland Vampires from Scotland to Canada becoming the first jet aircraft to make the trans-Atlantic crossing.

Ten years later it was another de Havilland plane, the Comet, which became the first passenger jet to cross the Atlantic from London to New York on a scheduled service. American airline Pan Am had boasted that it would be the first to fly this route with a Boeing 707 but BOAC beat them to it by three weeks. The Comet was already the first passenger jetliner used to be used on an international scheduled route, flying for BOAC between London and Johannesburg from 1952.

Another British company designed the aircraft that made the first pioneering non-stop flight to Australia from the UK. The Avro Vulcan flew the 11,500 miles (18,510 km) in just over twenty hours, needing three aerial refuellings on the way. Thankfully today modern jetliners stop off on the way to fill up the tanks!

Concorde is undoubtedly one of the most famous and recognisable aeroplanes of all time; this supersonic marvel was the first commercial jetliner to travel faster than the speed of sound in the western world. Concorde was designed, developed and produced in a joint venture of the British and French governments and had its first test flight in Bristol in 1969. During its 27 years of service it made almost 50,000 flights carrying more than 2.5 million passengers across the Atlantic. A Boeing 747 takes over 7 hours to fly from London to New York, but Concorde could do it in around 3 hours 20 minutes. Concorde landed for the last time at Heathrow on 24th October 2003, after it was decided that it was no longer economically viable to maintain the service of the fleet.