The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa. Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the relatively unknown American Charles Lindbergh won the prize in 1927 in his aircraft Spirit of St. Louis. However, a number of lives were lost by men who were competing to win the prize. Six men died in three separate crashes, and another three were injured in a fourth crash. The Prize occasioned considerable investment in aviation, sometimes many times the value of the prize itself, and advancing public interest and the level of aviation technology.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1926:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1927:
A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft.
Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was a record-setting aviator and test pilot. He and Clarence D. Chamberlin set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. He later flew in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron. He was known as the "bad boy of the air". He received numerous fines and suspensions for flying stunts such as flying under bridges or flying too close to buildings.
The Fokker F.VII, also known as the Fokker Trimotor, was an airliner produced in the 1920s by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, Fokker's American subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and other companies under licence.
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin was an American pioneer of aviation, being the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the first transatlantic passenger.
Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was an Italian-American aviation pioneer, airplane designer and builder, who is credited with many design firsts and whose aircraft broke many aviation records. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973. The Bellanca C.F., the world's first enclosed-cabin monoplane, is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Bellanca was known mostly for his long range aircraft which led the way for the advancement of international and commercial air transportation.
Charles Albert Levine was the first passenger aboard a transatlantic flight. He was ready to cross the Atlantic to claim the Orteig prize but a court battle over who was going to be in the airplane allowed Charles Lindbergh to leave first.
Edward Anderson Stinson, Jr. was an American pilot and aircraft manufacturer. "Eddie" Stinson was the founder of Stinson Aircraft Company. At the time of his death in 1932 in an air crash, he was the world's most experienced pilot in flight hours, with over 16,000 hours logged.
François Coli was a French pilot and navigator best known as the flying partner of Charles Nungesser in their fatal attempt to achieve the first transatlantic flight.
Edward Norman Jackson was an American photographer and photojournalist for the New York Daily News. Jackson was President Woodrow Wilson's European photographer during the close of World War I and photographed The Big Four world leaders at the Paris Peace Conference.
The Gloster IV was a British racing floatplane of the 1920s. A single-engined biplane, the Gloster IV was a development of the earlier Gloster III intended to compete in the 1927 Schneider Trophy race. One aircraft competed in the race, but retired part way through. The three aircraft built continued to be used as trainers by the High Speed Flight for several years.
Princess Anne of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg was an English socialite and aviation patron and enthusiast. Anne was the second woman both to attempt and to perish in a transatlantic aircraft flight. Through her marriage to Prince Ludwig of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Anne was a Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg and a member of the Princely House of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg.
The sole Wright-Bellanca WB-2, named Columbia, Miss Columbia, and later Maple Leaf, was the second in a series of aircraft designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, initially for Wright Aeronautical then later Columbia Aircraft Corp.
Mabel Boll, known as the "Queen of Diamonds", was an American socialite involved in the early days of record-setting airplane flights in the 1920s. She garnered nicknames from the press, including "Broadway’s most beautiful blonde" and the "$250,000-a-day bride".
Lloyd Wilson Bertaud was an American aviator. Bertaud was selected to be the copilot in the WB-2 Columbia attempting the transatlantic crossing for the Orteig Prize in 1927. Aircraft owner Charles Albert Levine wanted to fly in his place, and an injunction by Bertaud against Levine prevented the flight. The prize was won by the aviator Charles Lindbergh.
The Old Glory was a Fokker F.VIIa single-engined monoplane that was used in 1927 on an attempted transatlantic flight from Old Orchard Beach, Maine, United States to Rome, Italy. The flight was sponsored by William Randolph Hearst to promote his newspaper the New York Daily Mirror. The flight was originally to have departed from Roosevelt Field, New York, but due to the weight of the aircraft it was decided to use a landing field at Old Orchard Beach, which offered a longer takeoff run.
Princess Xenia was a Fokker F.VIIa aircraft, built in 1925 for the Dutch airline KLM and initially used for regular journeys between Amsterdam and London via Rotterdam. In 1927, it was bought by a wealthy American who was married to a Russian princess and named the aircraft Princess Xenia for her. He loaned the aircraft to aviator Robert Henry McIntosh, also known as 'All-Weather Mac', who in 1927, with two others, failed in an attempt to make the east-to-west transatlantic flight. Princess Xenia was subsequently commissioned to fly non-stop from London to India, but unsuccessfully.
