WHEN these days we can catch an aeroplane to any part of the world, how often do people think of the pioneers whose efforts made this form of travel possible?

Few and far between, I would guess, but pioneers there had to be. Most of us would automatically think of the Wright brothers from America. But what about Sam Smith of Bolton?

What? You've never heard of him? Well, neither had I until a few weeks ago when I came across a file in the Evening News' library called "Aviation".

There, in the file, were cuttings telling of how in 1908, an aeroplane was built at Morris Green, Bolton. Samuel Smith, an employee at that time of Tootal Broadhurst Lee's, was, it seems, an ambitious man who was determined to be among the first to experience the thrill of flying.

Actually, he was a Preston man, but his work kept him in Bolton, so he set to work to build a machine. For a workshop he used a barn attached to Closes Farm in Smethurst Lane, which at that time was kept by a friend, Mr F C Wallis. Here, Samuel worked each night for months building the machine, and from time to time improving on the design -- which was his own -- as new ideas occurred to him. In fact, instead of conventional wings, Smith went for 120 slats like a venetian blind.

Where he could, Mr Wallis helped his friend, and together the two watched its growth, and eagerly awaited its completion.

At last the day of its test arrived. The weird contraption was wheeled out of its "hangar". For some time the flying machine had been the talk of the neighbourhood, so naturally there was a big crowd to watch the demonstration.

They cheered, and made all kinds of encouraging noises, but they were doomed to disappointment. For all its imposing looks, the machine never got more than a few feet off the ground. One attempt wasn't enough to discourage Sam, but he wasn't able to make any improvements, though he tried on a number of occasions, and later he pulled the whole machine to pieces. And that is the story of the aeroplane that never flew.

That was Sam Smith; so what about Thomas Johnson? You've never heard of him either? Well, neither had I until . . . just read the third paragraph again, to save me repeating myself.

Also in 1908, Thomas was a young grocer in Lever Street, Bolton, and claimed to have discovered the secret of aviation. For two years he had worked on a model plane, which was modelled on the flight of a bird without the beating of wings. Its rise or descent could be regulated either on a gradual scale or almost perpendicular, and in the case of accident, or any defect in the mechanism, it was an impossibility for the aeroplane to overturn or collapse as other machines did. That was prevented by an automatic parachute arrangement which came into instantaneous operation.

All that remained was for someone to take up the invention, but in that at least, Thomas failed. Four prominent local businessmen were interested, and did their best to float a company, but with no success. Nor could the Government be interested. He was discouraged, but believed in his invention so began to learn something about motor engines, and decided that he could work the propeller of his plane by that method. In fact he fitted a model engine to the model plane, but no one could be found to finance the building of an actual full-size machine.

Sadly, the First World War broke out, and when Thomas was in the Air Force he caught influenza, and died in March, 1919, from pneumonia. There is no doubt that an amazing inventor was lost to the cause of flying. Who knows what would have happened if Thomas had lived longer.

Then there was LAC J.S. Mort, the engineer of the R34 airship (there were 28 in the crew, all Service people) which amazed the world in 1919 by remaining nearly five days in the air and travelling more than 3,000 miles, making the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic by air. He was a Bolton man, having lived In Hereford Road; Lieut Brown (see paragraph three yet again!) who with his fellow Lancastrian Captain Alcock was the first to fly the Atlantic, also in 1919, had close associations with Bolton: his father being remarkably clever with high speed engines at the Globe Iron Works. While in Bolton, the Brown family lived in Park Street.

And A. V. Roe, who became famous in the aviation business, manufacturing the Avro biplanes, was a former apprentice at Horwich Loco Works (I'll be telling you more about him next week).

In 1936, a "mystery" article appeared in the paper, about a Bolton man who, 30 years previously had been involved with inventing aircraft. Who was he? I have no idea, because the only way he would talk to the Evening news reporter was on the understanding that his name would not be published. When he had been building a plane, he had kept it secret, and he wanted it to stay that way.

However, he told of how in 1906, in his Bolton workroom near the town centre, he had spent every spare hour for three years studying, calculating, drawing and finally building a flying machine of which he had dreamed, "and which would have caused all England to have come flocking round him with wonder."

And then . . . a woman lay dying. She knew of the machine, knew that he proposed to accomplish the seemingly impossible, and she was afraid, for she knew that one mistake would probably mean his death -- and he was not yet 21 years old. It was his mother, and she begged him to abandon his idea; great though his disappointment must have been, he agreed. He dismantled his machine, stored the various parts about his workroom, and forced himself to forget about it.

In 1936, with the parts of the aircraft (about 20 feet in length, and with a wingspan of 32 feet) still in his workroom, he told the reporter: "It's not news. It's history and I've done with it."

Over the years, he admitted that he was tempted to resume his work, but he never yielded. And having noted the progress of the aeroplane, he said he had no regrets. "I tried," he said, "and maybe if I'd had the money, I would have gone on. That's all there is to it." And his name remains a secret to this day.

So, although most of us have probably not realised, and surprising that it may be, Bolton was very much involved in the early days of flight . . .