He soon became interested in aircraft and in 1922, at the back of his father's laundry, with some friends and his brother George, Miles designed, then built a small biplane called the Gnat.

In 1930, Miles intended to emigrate to South Africa to remove himself from a difficult situation caused by his falling in love with one of his pupils, Maxine Freeman-Thomas.

[5]"In June 1930, The Hon Inigo Freeman-Thomas (Viscount Ratendone from February 1931), and his wife Maxine, came to Shoreham to learn to fly.

Eventually Miles was to have an affair with Maxine; to remove himself from the difficult situation, in August 1931 he emigrated to South Africa.

In emotional turmoil, Fred sold out his portion of the business, bought a trainer plane and shipped it to Cape Town, South Africa, to start a new life.

[11][12] Together F.G. and Blossom designed a single-seat biplane in 1932 (the Miles M1 Satyr), which was built for them by George Parnall & Co of Yate, Gloucestershire.

With the expansion of the Royal Air Force, the company in 1937 won a contract worth £2 million for the Miles Magister basic trainer.

However, with the onset of the Second World War, the Powis & Phillips works turned their full attention to aircraft production and Caunter eventually sold his design to the Alvis company.

In 1943, Miles was shown a prototype ballpoint pen made by László Bíró and offered to produce them for the Royal Air Force.

Data from this project was shared with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA – later to become NASA), also at work on supersonic aircraft designs during this period.

(former financial executive of the company) were formally committed for trial at Marylebone Magistrates' Court, the Old Bailey on summonses under the Prevention of Fraud (Investment) Act 1939.

The charges arose from alleged concealment of facts and misleading statements made in a share prospectus concerning the manufacture of Aerovan, Merchantman and other aircraft.

[21] In 1961, the aviation interests of the company became part of the new Beagle Group and Miles became the deputy chairman and his brother, chief designer.

[22] The F. G. Miles group continued with subsidiary engineering companies involved with flight simulators, aircraft structures and other aviation projects.