FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0214.PDF
APRIL 17, 1909. aims at the first stage of sorting the flutterers from the flyers. When its prize shall have been won—and the date cannot be far distant—it will be needful that the next stage of encouragement should be already prepared. It is plain that the newest prize will greatly help the British builders of flying machines. But a survey of the material that will surely be included in that available brings to mind the fact that there is a very big difference between the machine that is merely built in these islands, •either in the shape of a more or less deliberate copy of or as embodying a combination of sundry features that have been exploited in the design of practical foreign flying machines. Therefore an obvious line of develop- ment for yet another big prize to encourage the British investigator is to draw up regulations in connection with a gift whereby only home-made machines that are designed on lines wholly differing from those that have been proved practicable in existing foreign types of aircraft will be available for competition. The conditions as to the performance in connection with such a prize might well be made easier even than the simple ones laid down in the Daily Mail offer, for we must learn to go forward cautiously and gradually. From a perusal of the eminently simple regulations framed for the _^i,ooo prize, it seems that the chances are at least fifty in the hundred that the handsome award will be secured by some machine that is either a copy of non-patentable features that have been exploited abroad already with reasonably successful results, or that a selection and combination of many approved foreign features will constitute the winning apparatus. That is perfectly reasonable as far as it goes; but no proof has yet been afforded that all the possible ways in which flying machines can be designed and built have been exploited. Therefore, as those who have found the present means will naturally continue to develop logically along their respective lines of investigation, it seems needful to devise ways of fostering experiments on original lines. There is no reason to suppose that in the fulness of time there should not be evolved as many varieties of practical flying machines as there are of water craft, or, in another kind, of vehicles for land locomotion. Hence our argument in favour of rather fostering original lines of investigation than of accepting without question the notion that whatever practical achievement is to come must inevitably be in the nature of mere conventional develop- ments along already familiar lines. These thoughts are not idle, but worthy to be pondered by those who take a ply in these matters, and who will accordingly appreciate how soon the first mechanical flights will begin to be made in Britain; and we may judge of the great impetus that such a revelation of the actuality of the thing must undoubtedly exercise on the public at large. Things that happen abroad can never stir the imagination or awaken the degree of interest that attaches to whatever happens at home ; hence our home public yet remains to realise what the actuality of human power flight amounts to. Let them once do so, and the path of the pioneer will become a way delightful to follow in spite of whatever toil, disappointment or sacrifice it may fall to the lot of the individual to make in the quest of a grand cause. PRIZES FOR FLIGHT. THERE has been no more extraordinary feature about the development of flight than the wonderful support which it has received from patrons of sport in France. Every- where there has been the most encouraging response to the least efforts of the various bodies which have been formed to encourage aviation, and equally numerous have been the spontaneous offers of more wealthy individuals and great firms. There is the most generous gift of ^600 per annum for ten years by the famous Michelin firm, the first instalment of which has been secured by Wilbur Wright, ari*d a similarly munificent half-yearly prize of 7,500 francs from the well-known Maison Pommery of champagne fame, to mention only two of the very largest windfalls which that country have placed within Teach of aviators at the present day. There are innumerable other smaller prizes, and indeed the Ligue National Aerienne alone have secured upwards of 40 individual donations of 1,000 francs each to form -separate prizes bearing the donor's name. No wonder that flight flourishes in France; indeed, the difficulty is almost to know what prize to go for next. In England there is the munificent offer of ^10,000 from the Daily Mail, their ^1,000 referred to above, the seven prizes of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom, .and the British Michelin prize of ^3,000. The prizes have been founded with such rapidity and in such numbers that it has been most difficult to keep a record of them, and no one has hitherto had time and patience to publish a comprehensive list. This, however, we have now endeavoured to achieve for the benefit of our readers, and the accompanying list is, we •believe, a complete record of the prizes which have been offered. Information in regard to any omissions or further details will be welcomed by the editor. In order to make it as useful as possible, we have grouped the various prizes under different sections according to what appears to us to be the essential feature of their conditions. Prizes for flights which are measured by distance are naturally the most numerous, but among such there are certain essential distinctions. In some cases the donors have specified that the aviator must return to the spot whence he started, or in other words, must effect a circular flight over what has come to be termed a '"closed circuit." In other cases it is specified that the flights must be made across country, or the starting point and destination have been specified, which comes to the same thing. Less frequently there have been prizes offered for distance flights irrespective of the nature of the course over which they are flown. There are three prizes still open for crossing the Channel, and there are prizes still open for heights and duration. In a number of instances prizes have been offered without any specification of the conditions, and these for the time being must, of course, be placed in the miscellaneous group. Our table, it will be found, gives the title and donor of the prize, its value to the winner, and the leading conditions for winning it. Further details will be found in the references (volume and page) to the The Automotor Journal and FLIGHT. In the column headed " Control " will be found the name of the Society entrusted with the organisation of the event, and in the adjacent column is the date when the competition closes. In order that the the table may form a record of the past as well as of the present, those prizes already won have been included, and the names of the winners are given in the table. 216
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
