Guy Morgan, the Falcon Hotel was built in 1937 to accommodate visitors and serve as a new accommodation for the Reading Aero Club. The company name was Phillips and Powis until 1943 when it was changed to Miles Aircraft Ltd. Two of the firm's most famous aeroplanes were the Magister and the Master which were used for basic training of RAF pilots. In the years before the war numerous aviators visited Woodley, including Charles Lindbergh and Amy Johnson; Douglas Bader lost his legs in a flying accident on the airfield in 1931. He was in the RAF and had been forbidden from doing low level stunts because of the danger. He recorded the accident in his log book " Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show". The Reading Mercury reported the eyewitness testimony of Captain R.L. Bateman, who was chief instructor at the Aerodrome "I was in the clubhouse when I heard the machine flying overhead. I looked out and saw that the pilot was about 200 feet above the ground. At the time, his machine was going into a slow roll and I was rather surprised at such a thing with the machine at that height. I do not think that the pilot realised that he was so low. At any rate, as he came off his back he lost height and speed and pancaked into the ground. The engine came away from the machine whilst the machine itself rolled over for some distance. The pilot was extracted within a couple of minutes of his machine touching the ground. We did not know the pilot at Woodley and we have no idea why he came here". Bader was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and operated on by the chief surgeon Mr Joyce. His legs could not be saved and both were amputated. He was fitted with tin legs and had to learn to walk again. Bader became a famous pilot and his story is told in the book and film Reach For The Sky. He was always grateful to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and helped them with fund-raising. In 1956 he returned to Woodley to open The Coronation Hall, the community hall which replaced the old village Hut. From 1935 a civilian flying school was operated by the Philips and Powis company, where trainees were prepared for service in the RAF. The company won a £2M Air Ministry order