Families of the Shoreham Airshow crash victims have called for a "thorough and frank" investigation to halt the grim death toll at displays across England.

Sarah Stewart, partner at law firm Stewarts, has represented most of the relatives of the 11 men killed at the 2015 show in West Sussex.

Four years on, they have settled compensation claims for undisclosed sums of money but are still waiting for answers.

Ms Stewart said the criminal trial of pilot Andrew Hill for manslaughter by gross negligence had put inquests "on hold".

Its conclusion means that West Sussex Coroner Penelope Schofield can move ahead with full inquests and a thorough investigation into the wider issues.

The lawyer said: "Many families do not look for compensation. They want answers so that future deaths can be prevented.

"It is now almost four years since the Shoreham Airshow disaster killed 11 innocent men.

"The bereaved families have had to painfully relive the circumstances of their loved one's death again and again.

"The families want answers and a verdict will go some way towards that. But it is only one part of the jigsaw.

"By the nature of the charges against the pilot, the coroner's inquest has to wait until the conclusion of the criminal case.

"The inquest will enable a wider investigation into the deaths that occurred by examining the legal framework or rules relating to the supervision of pilots, flights, aircraft and airshows, as well as the various systems in place - including safety planning - to protect observers of the airshow and those in close proximity to it.

"To give the families what they want - which is a thorough, frank investigation into how their loved ones died - the only way forward is a wider investigation into all those things as well.

"The families will only be satisfied once a thorough investigation has been carried out."

The Shoreham air crash in 2015 was the deadliest for 63 years, yet stunt pilot deaths and injuries have been a regular feature of shows in England over the past 100 years.

In 1952, 31 people, including pilot John Derry, were killed when a fighter jet crashed during the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.

Just three years later, the pilot of a Hawker Hunter was killed during a fly-by at the same venue which was witnessed by Princess Margaret and 4,000 other spectators.

According to a newspaper report at the time, the royal guest had just taken her seat when the jet "screamed into the ground and disintegrated".

"The princess looked towards the mushroom of smoke billowing hundreds of feet into the air then quickly turned her head away," a 1955 report stated.

A year later, in a bizarre accident, "Birdman" parachutist Leo Valentin fell to his death at a display in Liverpool after his wooden wings collided with his jump plane.

Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison were said to have been among the 100,000-strong crowd that watched in horror as the famed Frenchman's stunt went disastrously wrong.

In a magazine interview last year, Sir Paul recalled "me and George going to the Liverpool Airshow where some guy, birdman, flew out of an airplane and his parachute didn't open".

He told GQ: "And we watched him drop and went 'Uh-oh, I don't think that was right'. We thought 'Any second now his parachute's gonna open', and it never did. We went 'I don't think he survived that'. And he didn't."

In 1968, six members of the French Air Force were killed in a crash while performing a single engine demonstration at Farnborough.

More recently, Biggin Hill airshow lost three pilots in two days, including former Red Arrow Guy Bancroft-Wilson.

An official accident report into the 2001 incident found he may have crashed a Second World War fighter plane because he was not flying fast enough to complete an aerial loop.

In 2000, former Red Arrow Ted Girdler failed to pull up from a diving roll and crashed a 1957 Czech-built military plane into the English Channel off Eastbourne, East Sussex.

The 62-year-old flight lieutenant, from Kent, was killed and two people swimming in the sea received medical treatment after ingesting aviation fuel.

In September 2007, James Bond stunt pilot Brian Brown was killed when his Hawker Hurricane crashed in a fireball after he failed to pull out of a dive during a mock dogfight at Shoreham.

The 49-year-old, from Doncaster, who worked on the Pierce Brosnan movie Tomorrow Never Dies, may have carried out the move "on impulse", his inquest heard.

Four years later, in August 2011, Red Arrows pilot Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, 33, was killed in Bournemouth, Dorset.

An inquest heard he may have succumbed to G-force impairment before attempting to correct his course in the moments before the impact.

One of the earliest recorded accidents was at an agricultural show in Worcester in 1910.

An aviator reportedly crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing one person and injuring himself and several others.