Schneider Trophy

The Schneider Trophy (or prize) for seaplanes was announced by Jaques Schneider, a financier and enthusiast, in 1911 with a prize of roughly £1,000 pounds. It was meant to encourage technical advances in civil aviation but became a contest for pure speed with laps over a triangular course (initially 280 km, later 350 km).

The trophy was first competed for on April 16, 1913 at Monaco and won by a French Deperdussin at an average speed of 45.75 mph (about 73 km/h). The British won in 1914 with a Sopwith Tabloid at 86.6 mph (about 139 km/h). The competition resumed in 1919 at Bournemouth where in foggy conditions the Italian team won, they were later disqualified and the race was voided. In 1920 and 1921 at Venice the Italians won - in 1921 no other nation entered and in 1921 the only non-Italian entry did not start. In 1922 in Naples the British and French competed with the Italians and the British private entry won. The 1923 trophy, contested at Cowes, went to the Americans with a sleek, liquid-cooled engined craft designed by Glen Curtiss. In 1924 there was no competition as no other nation turned out to face the Americans, the Italians and the French withdrew and both British craft crashed in pre-race trials. In 1925 at Chesapeake Bay the Americans won again, the British challenger (R.J. Mitchell's Supermarine S4) and the Italians soundly beaten by pilot James Doolittle. In 1926 the Italians returned with a Macchi M39 and won against the Americans with a 246 mph (about 394 km/h) run. In 1927 for Venice there was a strong British entry with government backing and RAF pilots (the High Speed Flight) for Mitchell, Gloster and Shorts, Supermarine's Mitchell designed S5s came first and second. 1927 was the last annual competition, the event then moving onto a biannual schedule to allow for more development time. In 1929, at Cowes, Supermarine won again with a new Rolls-Royce engine with a average speed of 328.63 mph (about 526 km/h). In 1931 the British government withdrew support but a private donation of £100,000 from Lady Lucy Houston allowed Supermarine to compete and win on September 13 against only British opposition, setting both a new world speed record (379 mph, about 606 km/h) and winning the trophy outright with three straight wins.

Date	Location	Winning Aircraft	Nationality	Pilot	Speed (km/h)
1913	Monaco	Deperdussin	France	Maurice Prevost	73.56
1914	Monaco	Sopwith Tabloid	UK	Howard Picton	139.74
1920	Venice, Italy	Savoia S.12	Italy	Luigi Bologna	170.54
1921	Venice, Italy	Macchi M.7bis	Italy	Giovanni de Briganti	189.66
1922	Naples, Italy	Supermarine Sea Lion II	UK	Henri Biard	234.51
1923	Cowes, UK	Curtiss CR-3	USA	David Rittenhouse	285.29
1925	Baltimore, USA	Curtiss F3C-2	USA	James Doolittle	374.28
1926	Hampton Roads, USA	Macchi M.39	Italy	Mario Bernardi	396.69
1927	Venice, Italy	Supermarine S.5	UK	Sidney Webster	453.28
1929	Calshot, UK	Supermarine S.6	UK	Henry Waghorn	528.89
1931	Calshot, UK	Supermarine S.6B	UK	John Boothman	547.31

The progenitors of the Supermarine Spitfire and the Italian Macchi were made to compete for the trophy. They shared the streamlined shape and low drag liquid cooled engine that was only later succeeded by the 'brutal' air-cooled radial engines of other WW II fighters.

The trophy is at the Royal Aero Club in London.