Prizewinning Designs

In the early days of flight, advances in aircraft design were often helped along or speeded up by prize competitions. Newspapers, aviation organizations, and wealthy people offered trophies and large cash prizes to aviators who could build aircraft that would win races and make historic flights.

Between 1913 and 1931, seaplanes competed for the Schneider Trophy. The

last three races were won by planes designed by Reginald Mitchell. When Britain needed a new fighter plane before World War II, Mitchell used his experience in designing racing planes to produce one of the most famous fighters of the war, the Spitfire.

Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 to win the Orteig Prize. Lindbergh’s airplane was a standard Ryan M-2 airplane that was specially redesigned with bigger wings and extra fuel tanks for the long­distance flight.

The Gossamer Condor won the first Kremer Prize in 1977 for the first human-powered plane (using pedals) to fly a figure-eight course. In 1979 the Gossamer Albatross won the second Kremer Prize for the first human-powered flight across the English Channel in Europe. A third Kremer Prize, awarded for speed in a human-powered plane, was won in 1984 by a plane named the Monarch B.

Air races are still held today, but now they are more for sport and entertain­ment than to encourage advances in design. Some aircraft, however, are still specially designed to win prizes. The first privately developed space plane, SpaceShipOne, was designed by Burt Rutan to win the $10 million Ansari-X Prize in 2004. Rutan also designed the

Voyager airplane for the first nonstop round-the-world flight in 1986. He went on to design the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer plane for the first solo, nonstop, round-the-world flight in 2005.

SEE ALSO:

• Aerodynamics • Bleriot, Louis

• Boeing • Control System • Curtiss,

Glenn • Engine • Materials and

Structures • Stability and Control

• Supersonic Flight

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