CALSHOT Activities Centre is staging a exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of Britain winning the famous Schneider Trophy air race for the third and last time.

Calshot Spit hosted the prestigious event in 1929 and again in 1931, when almost a million people lined the shores of the Solent to watch the action.

Both races were won by Supermarine planes designed by the legendary R J Mitchell, who went on to lead the team that developed the Spitfire.

Mitchell's rise to fame, including his involvement in the Schneider Trophy, was depicted in the 1942 movie The First of the Few, part of which was filmed at the former RAF Ibsley, near Ringwood.

The two-day exhibition, which starts tomorrow, being staged in a former hangar at the end of the Spit.

Visitors will be able to view replicas of some of the aircraft that flew in the races, plus drawings of more than 100 seaplanes and flying boats that were built for the contests between 1913 and 1931.

Maps and charts of the various courses will also be on show along with numerous items of memorabilia from the period.

Experts will be on hand to talk about the Schneider Trophy's contribution to an important period in aviation history. A continuous slide show will display photographs of many of the planes that took part.

Britain's victory in the 1927 contest gave it the right to host the next event in 1929 and Calshot was chosen as the venue.

Pilots taking part in the spectacle had to complete several laps of a triangular course high above the eastern Solent.

The contest was won by a blue and silver Supermarine S.6 flown by Richard Waghorn, who thrilled the crowds by achieving an average speed of 328.64mph.

The race returned to Calshot in 1931 - the last time it was ever held. The winner was a Supermarine S.6B flown by John Boothman, who notched up a speed of 340.08mph.

The exhibition is being held in a room named after Samuel Kinkead, a member of the team that won the 1927 race in Venice.