Thanks finally figured it out. It was counter intuitive to just fly a plane to Britain instead of putting it on a ship.

Thanks for the response but I tried that for an air unit - the operate does not give me sea movement. I need to put an air unit on a transport somehow. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. What do I need to do after I get the "Operate" up?

Transporting most units - you right click on them in a port and it shows a transport option. My Air units do not have such an option. Do you need to increase a technology or is there some other way to make them move by sea (its a long way from the USA to Britain.