Schneider was a
hydroplane racer who came from a wealthy family; his interest in aircraft began after he met
Wilbur Wright in 1908, but a boating accident in 1910 crippled him and prematurely ended his racing and flying career. capable of reliable operation, extended range, and reasonable payload capacity, he announced the annual Schneider Trophy competition at a race banquet on 5 December, to cover a distance of at least . (1913) The first competition was held on 16 April 1913, at
Monaco, consisting of six laps, distance in total. It was won by
Maurice Prévost, piloting a French
Deperdussin Monocoque (Coupe Schneider) at an average speed of . Although Prévost had averaged a faster flying speed, he lost 50 minutes when he landed prematurely after losing count of the laps completed. All four entrants were flying French-made aircraft; two withdrew before completing the race. The British won in 1914 with a
Sopwith Tabloid flown by
Howard Pixton at ; From 1915 to 1918, competition was suspended for the duration of
World War I. After the war, the competition resumed in 1919 at
Bournemouth where in
foggy conditions the Italian team won. They were later disqualified and the race was voided, and in 1921 the French entry did not start. Had it not been for the 1919 disqualification, Italy would have been awarded the trophy permanently. two
Macchi M.17s and a
Savoia S.51.
Nationalism () The 1923 trophy, contested at
Cowes, went to the Americans with a sleek, liquid-cooled engined craft designed by
Glenn Curtiss. It used the
Curtiss D-12 engine. U.S. Navy Lieutenant David Rittenhouse won the cup, The preparation of the United States team, backed by government support and using Curtiss racing biplanes derived from inter-military competitions, increased the speed and the investment of a winning entry significantly. In 1924 the competition was cancelled 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.
R. J. Mitchell's
Supermarine S.4 and the other Gloster III were damaged before the race and did not compete. Two of the American planes did not finish. In 1927 at Venice the British responded by enlisting government backing and
RAF pilots (the
High Speed Flight) for the
Supermarine,
Gloster, and
Shorts entries. Supermarine's Mitchell-designed
S.5s took first and second places; no other entrants finished. The race was witnessed by an estimated 250,000 spectators. 1927 was the last annual competition, the event was then mutually agreed to be held biennially to allow more development time. Although France had ordered racing seaplanes from
Bernard and
Nieuport-Delage in 1928, they were unable to complete them in time for the 1929 race. allowed Supermarine to compete. When the French and Italian teams dropped out, leaving no other competitors, the British team flew the course alone on 13 September and won the coveted Schneider Trophy outright, having beaten the time record from the 1929 competition. Reportedly half a million spectators lined the beachfronts. The Italian, French, and German entrants failed to ready their aircraft in time for the competition. The remaining British team set both a new world speed record of and won the trophy outright with a third straight win. For a complete list of the aircraft which competed in the competitions, see
List of Schneider Trophy aircraft.
Winners Alumni • Reginald J. Mitchell, designer of the winning Supermarine Schneider Trophy entrants, also designed the
Supermarine Spitfire fighter. • Mario Castoldi, designer of the 1926 winner, the Macchi M.39, also designed other contestants such as the M.52, the M.52R, the M.67, and the
M.C.72. After the M.C.72 Castoldi designed some of the Italian fighters which flew during
World War II, such as the
MC.202. • James Doolittle, winning pilot of the 1925 race, was accomplished in many other areas. He led the famous "
Doolittle Raid", an American bombing attack on several Japanese homeland targets in April 1942.
1981 revival In 1981 the race was revived, no longer for seaplanes and under different rules, by the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Britain's ultimate retention of the Schneider Trophy. The original trophy remained in the Science Museum, a full-size replica was cast, and the race opened on a handicapped basis to any propeller–driven landplane capable of maintaining in straight and level flight, and weighing up to . Pilots had to have a minimum of 100 hours as pilot-in-command, and a valid air racing licence. Following that event, the UK subsidiary of U.S. computer company
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) independently decided to sponsor a long-term revival of the Schneider Trophy, with the first race held in 1984, and races held annually, with a few omissions, since then. The idea was submitted by DEC's then UK PR consultancy Infopress as part of a broader commercial sponsorship programme designed to increase DEC's presence in the UK market at that time. DEC sponsored this revived race series from 1984 until 1991, which also marked the diamond jubilee of the final race in the original series. DEC and Infopress turned to the expertise of the Royal Aero Club's Records, Racing & Rally Association which again administered and ran the actual races. The 1981 Solent course, itself a close approximation of the original 1929 and 1931 Schneider Trophy courses over the Solent, was also used and adapted from year to year. This sponsorship had a profound effect on the awareness and popularity of handicapped air racing in the UK and further afield, as well as markedly increasing DEC's commercial profile in the UK. The appeal of the race, its historic connections, and the fact that prize money was now on offer, meant that the entry list for the race was large enough to warrant the introduction of heats from 1985 onwards. (There were 62 entrants to the 1984 race, believed at the time to be the largest-ever in all forms of air racing.) The event received further boosts in 1986, when it was started by the then Prince Andrew, Duke of York (later
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) and his fiancée
Sarah Ferguson; in 1987, when the event was featured as one episode in a BBC television documentary series; and in 1988, when it was a central part of that year's ITV Telethon Appeal. DEC invited customers and partners to each year's event as guests, and the general public watched in increasing numbers as the series grew in size and popularity. For the pilots taking part, the event became, along with the
King's Cup air race, the highlight of the UK's air racing season, and regularly attracted entrants from continental Europe. DEC continued to sponsor the races until 1991. Since that time, the race has been run by the Royal Aero Club Records Racing and Rally Association along with the King's Cup and the
British air racing championship. The venue has varied but is still flown on most occasions around a Solent-based course, usually around September of each year.
Revival winners ==In popular culture==