PLANS for an international airport at Blackpool took off soon after the Second World War.

The first scheduled flights were run via Blackpool, by British European Airways from Manchester to the Isle of Man.

Pleasure flights also res-umed and several companies became established, includ-ing one of the largest, the Lancashire Aircraft Corp-oration, run by entrepreneur Eric Rylands.

During the desperate days of the Berlin Air Lift, its planes flew more than 2,000 sorties and carried 15,000 tons of equipment and 30,000 gallons of fuel, and its repu-tation was assured.

The airport was redesigned in 1950 and it gave East Lancashire folk their first taste of flying, with them hopping on to 20-minute trips round the tower in a five- or six-seater.

In those days, works out-ings from the mills and factories of East Lancashire followed a regular pattern – a coach trip to Blackpool, a slap-up meal at the Imperial, a stroll along the promenade to the Pleasure Beach, fish and chips, kiss-me-quick hats, three or four pints of best mild or a few brandy and Babychams, then home for last drinks in the local.

But in the late fifties, Darwen businessman Tom Harwood thought he would do something a bit different for workers at his Darwen factory. At least for those up for it ...

Tom was always full of bright ideas – even as a youngster, playing in the cobbled streets between the cotton mills and foundries.

He was the eldest of four young children, living in Pitt Street with his widowed mother Bertha, after his dad, John Albert, died from wounds and infection after service in the Great War.

As a youngster he travelled the country selling door-to-door and after the Second World War started his own business making trinkets and fancy goods.

In later years he was one of the first businessmen in the North West to establish commercial links with China and Hong Kong, when the horizons of most small companies seldom stretched further than the north east and the Midlands.

In the early 1950s he and a couple of pals founded Plastocraft Products and moved into Whitehall Mill, then Britannia Mill before taking over Water-field Mill at the end of the decade.

He moved into a fine house at the top of Hawk-shaw Avenue and became president of Darwen Golf Club.

And all the time he was still full of ideas, some brilliant, some madcap – a works outing by aeroplane to the Isle of Man was one of his better ones.

More than 30 took up the challenge and had a thrilling day out.

Most of them had never flown before and it was a trip they remembered all their lives.

Tom – everyone called him TJ – lived to the age of 95 and by then he had flown round the world several times. But he always rem-embered that works outing to the Isle of Man in what looks in the photo like a Douglas C-47 Skytrain.

“It was a bit different,” he recalled. “Some of the girls were a bit scared and were glad to get their feet back on to firm ground. But everyone had a great time.”