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It is famous for the shortest flight in the world, but Orkney is now really reaching for the skies - it is to have an aviation festival.

Running from September 10-14 it will highlight the story of military and civil aviation in the islands.

Orkney has been over the years at the centre of numerous aviation developments, through two world wars and the pioneering air service of Captain E.E.. (Ted) Fresson in the 1930s.

Up and down: Loganair has been running the 'world's quickest regular flight' since 1967 from Westray to Papa Westray

All aboard: Baggage is loaded onto a Loganair plane for the short journey from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands

A new era in island aviation began in 1967 with the start of Loganair's inter-island service and the company's president, Scott Grier, will tell the story, with archive footage, on September 12. And the air link between Westray and Pappa Westray is the world's shortest regular air service.

In November the route claimed a new record - with a woman at the controls for the first time. Rebecca Simpson, 35, took over the 1.7-mile journey from Westray to Papa Westray which attracts flight fans from all over the world.

The record flight time, from the wheels coming up to touching down again, is 52 seconds, and the plane normally has room for eight or nine passengers.

Next month's aviation festival is an initiative of a local group Another Orkney Production, led by photographer and film-maker Moya McDonald. She said that that she wanted to put on record the remarkable range of achievements in aviation that have taken place in Orkney.

Don't get too relaxed: The scale of the flight - that could take less than a minute

History: Scottish writer Ann Scott-Moncrieff as she prepares to take her flight as the first Orkney resident to fly the Pentland Firth with pioneering aviator captain Ted Fresson in the cockpit

The festival will also hear about the Fleet Air Arm in Scapa Flow from the daughter of one of the pilots, Sheena Taylor who comes from Stromness. The closing event of the festival will be an Aviation Trail Bus Tour, including the unveiling of an aviation interpretation board at the Standing Stones Hotel in Stenness.

The first Orkney resident to fly the Pentland Firth was Agnes Shearer from Kirkwall, then a young reporter at The Orcadian, who later became the well-known Scottish author and contributor to the BBC, Ann Scott-Moncrieff. Her untimely death at the age of only 29 was described at the time as a 'serious loss to the literary and cultural life of Scotland'.

Ms McDonald said: 'Orkney is the ideal location for an Aviation Festival. From the flying boats in Scapa Flow on U-boat patrol to today's pioneering Loganair inter-island services, Orkney has a wonderfully rich and varied aviation history.'