Tribute to the amazing flying machines

Malta International Airport and Air Malta last week jointly marked the centenary of manned flight with a celebration and an exhibition.

Herbert Bammer, former president of Austrian Airlines and former president of IATA - International Air Transport Association, was the guest speaker at a talk on the history and future of aviation.

After the talk, MIA's chief executive officer, Peter Bolech, and Air Malta chairman Lawrence Zammit inaugurated an exhibition inside the check-in hall.

The exhibition featured the various important phases of the history of flight, from the modest resources of the Wright brothers in 1903 to the supersonic and sophisticated era of the 21st century.

The exhibition included a model of the very first aircraft used in 1903, built to scale with similar material.

The model was the work of Frans Zammit Haber and Wayne Galea, two aviation enthusiasts who meticulously constructed it on a voluntary basis with the assistance of MIA's airfield services department.