1930s - company founded by Charles Powis and Jack Phillips as Philips and Powis Aircraft, based at Woodley Airfield in Reading, England;

1941 - F G Miles bought financial control of the company;

1943 - firm renamed the Miles Aircraft Limited;

1943 - FG Miles was shown a prototype ballpoint pen made by László Bíró and offered to produce them for the Royal Air Force and produced the pen called the biro after the inventor;

1945 - the Reading biro factory became the Miles Martin Pen Company;

1947 - Miles Aircraft Company entered receivership and the aviation assets were purchased by Handley Page as Handley Page Reading