The Eastbourne Aviation Company was established by Major Bernard Fowler in 1909 on land between Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay. His original airfield lies under the present day industrial estate below St Anthony's Mount. In nearby Leeds Avenue an original Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) guardhouse is the sole surviving building from this enterprise, and is now converted to a bungalow.
A seaplane factory was also constructed on the Crumbles shingle beach where the Sovereign Centre swimming pool now stands.
During the First World War aspiring pilots from all over the Commonwealth came to train here. A young trainee Dan Minchin learned to fly a Bristol Boxkite at this aerodrome and in 1927 attempted to cross the Atlantic in a Fokker V11A monoplane named St Raphael. Lieut Colonel Minchin and two colleagues were lost when the aircraft failed to reach Ottawa, Canada. A plaque on the wall below the 'RAF' window of Eastbourne College in Blackwater Road commemorates the loss of this 'Old Eastbournian'.