The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded first annually, and later biennially, to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flying boats. In 1931 Britain met the conditions to retain the Trophy permanently; it is held at the Science Museum at South Kensington, London.
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of the money he made to finance his attempts to build a successful aircraft. Blériot was the first to use the combination of hand-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder control as used to the present day to operate the aircraft control surfaces. Blériot was also the first to make a working, powered, piloted monoplane. In 1909 he became world-famous for making the first airplane flight across the English Channel, winning the prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. He was the founder of Blériot Aéronautique, a successful aircraft manufacturing company.
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early as 1904, he began to manufacture engines for airships. In 1908, Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association, a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, to build flying machines.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1909:
Air racing is a type of motorsport that involves airplanes or other types of aircraft that compete over a fixed course, with the winner either returning the shortest time, the one to complete it with the most points, or to come closest to a previously estimated time.
Antoinette was a French manufacturer of light petrol engines. Antoinette also became a pioneer-era builder of aeroplanes before World War I, most notably the record-breaking monoplanes flown by Hubert Latham and René Labouchère. Based in Puteaux, the Antoinette concern was in operation between 1903 and 1912. The company operated a flying school at Chalons for which it built one of the earliest flight simulators.
A fly-in, also called an aviation meet, is a pre-arranged gathering of aircraft, pilots and passengers for recreational and social purposes.
Édouard de Niéport, usually known as Édouard Nieuport (1875–1911) was the co-founder with his brother Charles of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company, Société Anonyme Des Établissements Nieuport, formed in 1909 at Issy-les-Moulineaux. An engineer and sportsman, Édouard was also one of the pre-eminent aeroplane designers and pilots of the early aviation era . As a pilot, he set a new world speed record of 74.37 miles per hour (119.69 km/h) on 11 May 1911 at Mourmelon, flying his Nieuport II monoplane, powered by a 28 horsepower (21 kW) engine of his own design. Later that year at Châlons, he bettered this time with a new record of 82.73 miles per hour (133.14 km/h). Racing for the Gordon Bennett Trophy in July at Eastchurch, he finished third, beaten for first place by one of his own aircraft, flown by the American pilot C. T. Weymann.
Charles Terres Weymann was a Haitian-born early aeroplane racing pilot and businessman. During World War I he flew for Nieuport as a test pilot and was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island".
The Nieuport VI was a sport monoplane produced in France in the 1910s, a further development by Nieuport along the same general lines as the Nieuport II and Nieuport IV, differing mainly from the Nieuport IV in being slightly larger. Like the Nieuport IV, it was used by various military air arms as a reconnaissance aircraft and trainer.
The Blériot XII was an early French aeroplane built by Louis Blériot. It was first flown in May 1909 and was the first aircraft to be flown with two passengers on board, and was used by Blériot to gain second place in the 1909 Gordon Bennett Cup and to set a new world speed record.
Arthur Charles Hubert Latham was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane. Due to engine failure during his first of two attempts to cross the Channel, he became the first person to land an aeroplane on a body of water.
Alfred Leblanc was a pioneer French aviator.
The Nieuport II was a mid-wing monoplane racing or sport aircraft built by the Société Anonyme des Établissements Nieuport between 1910 and 1914 and was noted for its high performance using a small twin-cylinder engine, and winning many races, primarily in France before being used as a trainer during World War I by French flying schools.
The Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne was an 8-day aviation meeting held near Reims in France in 1909, so-named because it was sponsored by the major local champagne growers. It is celebrated as the first international public flying event, confirming the viability of heavier-than-air flight.
The Blériot XXIII was a racing monoplane produced in 1911 by Blériot Aéronautique. Two were built, both of which were flown in the 1911 Gordon Bennett Trophy competition at Eastchurch; one, flown by Alfred Leblanc, achieving second place. Leblanc had previously set a world speed record of 125 km/h (78 mph) on 12 June 1911 at the eliminating trial for the French Gordon Bennett entrant.
The pioneer era of aviation was the period of aviation history between the first successful powered flight, generally accepted to have been made by the Wright Brothers on 17 December 1903, and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
The Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe was an international aeronautical speed competition instituted on 25 August 1909 by the French oil magnate Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe. The race was reinstated three times through the years at the initiative of the Aéro-Club de France, and later by Deutsch de la Meurthe's daughter Suzanne.
The Belmont Park aviation meet was an international aerial show that took place in 1910. The Belmont Racetrack in Elmont, New York, United States, was the site of the aviation meet. The event took place over nine days and featured aerial races, and contests involving duration, distance, speed and altitude.
