The History Of The BMAA

This section contains a comprehensive account of microlighting from the beginnings of powered flight up until present day.
The content draws heavily from Norman Burr. Norman has been involved with microlights for many years, editing Flight Line and its successor Microlight Flying - the magazine of the BMAA.

Norman has also provided materials from a long out-of-print text: 'Ultralight and Microlight Aircraft of the World' The history provided here covering the period up to 1982 is taken directly from that book, which was co-authored by Berger.

Sadly, no-one has taken up the challenge of bringing out an update to Berger and Burr. It was therefore down to Lynn Benson and her partner Eden to spend time trying to piece together the years after the second edition was published. Luckily, Eden possesses an (almost) complete set of Flight Line and Microlight Flying, so we used those as our basis, together with Eden's knowledge drawn from his long involvement with the sport. Our efforts are nowhere near as comprehensive as Norman's. However, we have tried to reflect the key issues of concern to the BMAA alongside the technical developments in aircraft design. We have been much more focused on the British scene than Norman, again due to the materials available to us, rather than any disrespect for developments elsewhere.

Click on the links for the relevant years: