Celebrating 100 years of aviation

Cornel Munn and Austin Williams, both aged 11, from St Clement's Primary School, on Henwick Road, St John's, won two of the five first place prizes in the Shobdon Airfield Schools Competition for Creative Art and Literature.

Cornel produced an illustrated poem about the first manned flight made by the Wright Brothers in 1903 to win a helicopter ride and Austin wrote a timeline of the history of aviation for his prize of flying in a glider from the airfield, near Leominster, on Saturday.

Austin, who is from Worcester, said when he went up in the glider he felt a strange sensation, like being on a rollercoaster.

"When we suddenly dropped I had a funny feeling in my tummy like there were butterflies in there.

"The very best part of the flight was when I was allowed to take control of the rudder.

"I was so happy when I found out I was going to fly a plane. I will never forget that day.''

Cornel, who is also from Worcester, said he was equally delighted when he found out that he had won the competition.

"When I took off it felt like I was floating, except I was completely surrounded by noise," said Cornel, who was born with a congenital condition that left him without fully developed arms.

"I was very surprised at the change of temperature as we ascended into the air. By the time I had reached full altitude the temperature had dropped by five degrees Celsius," he said.

Cornel's poem:

The Wright Brothers were the first to master flight,

They thought their plane was pretty light.

When the Wright brothers invented the first ever plane,

The world would never be the same again.

The first ever flight reached 40 feet

But the Wright brothers didn't find that hard to beat!

Now flight technology is more advance

To give people around the world a chance!