File:Cody aircraft mark IC, Cathedral RAE-O143.jpg

English: Aviation in Britain Before the First World War

Cody in discussion with Colonel Capper of the Balloon School at Aldershot with several bystanders stood next to Cody aircraft mark IC (Cathedral - so named because of its size and the size of the hangar it required and the katahedral (lower at the wing tips) arrangement of the wings) . Only some struts and the long bamboo rudder spa are visible.

Colonel Capper was instrumental in the War Office deciding to use Cody's man carrying kites and appointing him as instructor. After this their relationship soured, due partly to Capper's bias towards airships rather than aeroplanes and his support of a rival aviator John Dunne. Cody's none military attitude also caused a certain amount of friction between the two of them. Their relationship did however remain cordial, and on 15th August 1909 in the mark IC, piloted by Cody, Capper became the first passenger to be carried by an aircraft in Britain.

As well as making made the first passenger carrying flight in Britain in this aircraft Cody made several record breaking flights including one cross-country of around forty miles and lasting an hour and three minutes, passing over Aldershot, Camberley, Fleet, Farnham and Farnborough on the 8th September 1909. This was the furthest cross-country flight that had ever been made, anywhere in the world and the longest flight in time and distance in the British Empire. Only six other pilots and four types of machine had flown over forty miles anywhere in the world and all of these were aerodrome circuits not cross-country flights.