Daily Mail aviation prizes

Daily Mail Front Cover – 16 June 1919

Between 1906 and 1930, the Daily Mail newspaper, initially on the initiative of its proprietor, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe,^[1] awarded numerous prizes for achievements in aviation. The newspaper would stipulate the amount of a prize for the first aviators to perform a particular task in aviation or to the winner of an aviation race or event. The most famous prizes were the £1,000 for the first cross-channel flight awarded to Louis Blériot in 1909 and the £10,000 given in 1919 to Alcock and Brown for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between North America and Ireland.

The prizes are credited with advancing the course of aviation during the early years, with the considerable sums offered becoming a much-coveted goal for the field's pioneers.^[2]

Prizes

In addition, four "consolation" prizes were awarded:

See also

• List of aviation awards
• Scott Collection, a collection of aerophilately items relating to the 1912 flights.

Annotations

1. Suspended during the war and renewed in 1918 with different conditions

Notes

1. "Direct initiative of Lord Northcliffe Flight" PDF Archive, 6 September 1913
2. Such, Colin. "The Daily Mail's Sponsorship of British Pioneer Aviation". Warwick & Warwick. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
3. "Blackpool Aviation Week October 18th. to 23rd". Flight magazine. 16 October 1909. pp. 645–650.
4. Lewis 1970, pp. 43–44.
5. 1918 conditions for £10,000 prize
6. "The New Daily Mail Prizes.", Flight, Flight Global Archive, 5 April 1913
7. Map showing the course to be followed Flight, 16 August 1913
8. "Lympne Competition 1926", Flight PDF Archive, 23 September 1926
9. Charles Loch Mowat (1955). Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940. Methuen. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-416-29510-8.
10. Johnson was also awarded the Harmon Trophy for her achievement

References

• Lewis, Peter. British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft. London:Putnam, 1970. ISBN 0-370-00067-6.