When the First World War began in 1914, powered flight was still remarkably new.

The Wright brothers had made their first successful powered flight only eleven years earlier. Aircraft were fragile, their range was limited and nobody yet fully understood what role they might play in a major war.

Four years later, everything had changed.

Along the East Sussex coast, airships were hunting submarines over the Channel, seaplanes were protecting shipping, primitive land-based aircraft were flying coastal patrols, pilots were being trained and a network of small military landing grounds had appeared across the countryside.

Most of that first air war has now disappeared from the landscape.

But if you know where to look, a surprising number of traces remain.

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