The Red Arrows performed a flypast

The British Airline Pilots' Association wants to celebrate the "remarkable skill, brain power and courage" of civilian pilots of the last century.

Vintage aircraft took flight in Bedfordshire and pilots gathered in Hampshire to watch a flypast, among numerous events staged to mark the first powered flight.

Orville Wright's 'Flyer' took off at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.

The Red Arrows marked the centenary with a flypast at the RAF Museum in Hendon, north London, where the Duke of Edinburgh opened a new exhibition hall.

Milestones of Flight, the new permanent exhibition hall, includes suspended aircraft and one of London's largest permanent street sculptures - the 80-feet-high Sky Dance.

The early pioneers could not have imagined the complex world of air travel we live and work in today Jim McAuslan Balpa general secretary 100 flights to mark anniversary

In Hampshire more than 60 pilots came to watch a Tiger Moth biplane and 24 other aircraft take part in a flypast at Lee-on-Solvent, near Portsmouth.

And from the foothills of the Italian Alps, British balloonist David Hempleman-Adams claimed to have set a new airship speed record.

At Bedfordshire's Old Warden Aerodrome a 1910 Bristol Boxkite - said to be the closest aircraft in Britain to the Flyer - took to the air, joined by a Tigermoth and other vintage aircraft.

In Powys, Wales, 100-year-old Lena Rowlands took off from Welshpool Airport while in Essex, another 100-year-old, Florrie Mascall, took her first flight from North Weald airfield.

Florrie Mascall had never been in a plane

"It was really marvellous, I think I will never forget it," she said.

In Kent, pilot Nick Davis flew 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) upside down from Manston Airport.

Meanwhile, two flying instructors marked the centenary by completing 100 take-offs and landings inside an hour.

Graham Webster and Tim Guest, each using a microlight plane, carried out their tribute at the Wrekin Flying Club at Shifnal in Shropshire.

The general secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa), Jim McAuslan, said: "The history of aviation is rich in individual achievement and there is much to celebrate."

The organisation's award will be given annually and eight people have already been nominated for the first.

Balpa's 8,000 members will vote for a winner over the next month.

The Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight

Mr McAuslan hopes the award will help raise the profile of professional pilots - especially among the young.

"We are trying to engage youngsters - perhaps tomorrow's Wright brothers are out there," he said.

"With locked flight deck doors pilots have become a bit remote from the rest of the aircraft and that is sad.

"Pilots are very professional people and want to engage with the passengers they carry."

Among the nominations is captain Eric Moody, who made a successful emergency landing at Jakarta, Indonesia, when his Boeing 747 with hundreds of people on board lost all four engines in a volcanic dust storm.

Also nominated is Senior First Officer Alastair Atchison, who made an emergency landing at Southampton after his captain, Tim Lancaster, was partially sucked through a broken cockpit windscreen.