AN ECCHINSWELL man with a key role in civil aviation, is the subject of a new book.

Alan Muntz was the co-founder of Airwork, which became one of Britain’s largest private airlines in the post-war years. For a number of years, its main base was at Blackbushe airport and the company also established a maintenance base at Lasham airfield in the 1950s.

Muntz was involved in a number of aviation activities, including the establishment of Britain’s first privately-owned airport at Heston, which opened in 1929.

Muntz lived at Ecchinswell, where his father was a district councillor.

Copies of Airwork: A History, will be signed by the book’s author Keith McCloskey, in Basingstoke on Sunday. Mr McCloskey, from Hungerford, will be at Waterstone’s in Festival Place, Basingstoke, between noon and 2pm.