Schneider Trophy - Schneider Trophy Alumni

A flying trophy for seaplanes presented by French armaments magnate Jacques Schneider in 1913. After being won outright by Great Britain in 1931 the contest ceased, but the races were revived in the 1980s.

The trophy was first competed for on April 16, 1913, at Monaco and won by a French Deperdussin at an average speed of 45.75 mph (about 73 km/h).

In 1922 in Naples the British and French competed with the Italians and the British private entry (Supermarine Sea Lion II) won.

In 1927 for Venice there was a strong British entry with government backing and RAF pilots (the High Speed Flight) for Mitchell, Gloster and Shorts.

In 1929, at Cowes, Supermarine won again in the S.6 with a new Rolls-Royce engine with an average speed of 328.63 mph (about 526 km/h).

In 1931 the British government withdrew support but a private donation of £100,000 from Lady Lucy Houston allowed Supermarine to compete and win on September 13 against only British opposition with reportedly half a million spectators lining the beachfronts.

The following days saw the winning Supermarine S.6b further break the world speed record twice, making it the first craft to break the 400mph barrier on September 29th at an average speed of 407.5mph.

Date	Location	Winning Aircraft	Nationality	Pilot	Speed (km/h, mph)
1913	Monaco	Deperdussin	France	Maurice Prevost	73.56, 45.71
1914	Monaco	Sopwith Tabloid	UK	Howard Pixton	139.74, 86.83
1920	Venice, Italy	Savoia S.12	Italy	Luigi Bologna	70.54, 43.83
1921	Venice, Italy	Macchi M.7bis	Italy	Giovanni de Briganti	189.66, 117.85
1922	Naples, Italy	Supermarine Sea Lion II	UK	Henri Biard	234.51, 145.72
1923	Cowes, UK	Curtiss CR-3	USA	David Rittenhouse	85.29, 53.00
1925	Baltimore, USA	Curtiss F3C-2	USA	James Doolittle	374.28, 232.57
1926	Hampton Roads, USA	Macchi M.39	Italy	Mario Bernardi	396.69, 246.50
1927	Venice, Italy	Supermarine S.5	UK	Sidney Webster	453.28, 281.66
1929	Calshot Spit, UK	Supermarine S.6	UK	Henry Waghorn	528.89, 328.65
1931	Calshot Spit, UK	Supermarine S.6B	UK	John Boothman	547.31, 340.09

The race was very significant in advancing aeroplane design, particularly in the fields of aerodynamics and engine design, and would show its results in the best fighters of WW2.

Schneider Trophy Alumni

Reginald Mitchell, the designer of the winning Supermarine Schneider Trophy entrants also designed the Supermarine Spitfire.