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The 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators, each of whom attempted to win a heavier-than-air powered flight challenge between London and Manchester first proposed by the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper in 1906. The £10,000 prize was won in April 1910 by Frenchman Louis Paulhan. The first to make the attempt was Claude Grahame-White, an Englishman from Hampshire. He took off from London on 23 April 1910, and made his first planned stop at Rugby. His biplane subsequently suffered engine problems, forcing him to land again, near Lichfield. High winds made it impossible for Grahame-White to continue his journey, and his aeroplane suffered further damage on the ground when it was blown over. While Grahame-White's aeroplane was being repaired in London, late on 27 April Paulhan took off, heading for Lichfield. A few hours later Grahame-White was made aware of Paulhan's departure, and immediately set off in pursuit. The next morning, after an unprecedented night-time take-off, he almost caught up with Paulhan, but his aeroplane was overweight and he was forced to concede defeat. Paulhan reached Manchester early on 28 April, winning the challenge. Both aviators celebrated his victory at a special luncheon held at the Savoy Hotel in London. The event marked the first long-distance aeroplane race in England, the first take-off of a heavier-than-air machine at night, and the first powered flight into Manchester from outside the city. Paulhan repeated the journey in April 1950, the fortieth anniversary of the original flight, this time as a passenger aboard a British jet fighter. ==History== On 17 November 1906 the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper offered a £10,000 prize for the first aviator to fly the between London and Manchester, with no more than two stops, in under 24 hours.〔 The challenge also specified that take-off and landing were to be at locations no more than five miles from the newspaper's offices in those cities. Powered flight was a relatively new invention, and the newspaper's proprietors were keen to stimulate the industry's growth; in 1908 they offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English channel (won on 25 July 1909 by the French aviator Louis Blériot), and £1,000 for the first circular one-mile flight made by a British aviator in a British aeroplane (won on 30 October 1909 by the English aviator John Moore-Brabazon). In 1910, two men accepted the newspaper's 1906 challenge; an Englishman, Claude Grahame-White, and a Frenchman, Louis Paulhan.〔 Claude Grahame-White was born in 1879 in Hampshire, England. He was educated at Crondall House School in Farnham, and later at Bedford Grammar School between 1892 and 1896.〔Obituary, ''The Old Bedfordian'', No.9, April 1960, p.34〕 Apprenticed to a local engineering firm, he later worked for his uncle Francis Willey, 1st Baron Barnby. He started his own motor vehicle business in Bradford, before travelling to South Africa to hunt big game. In 1909, inspired by Blériot's historic cross-channel flight, he went to France to learn how to fly, and by the following January he became one of the first Englishmen to obtain an aviator's certificate. He also started a flying school at Pau, which he moved to England later that year. Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan, better known as Louis Paulhan,〔 was born in 1883 in Pézenas, in the south of France. After doing military service at the balloon school at Chalais-Meudon he had worked as an assistant for Ferdinand Ferber before winning a Voisin biplane in an aircraft design competition. Paulhan taught himself to fly using this aircraft, and was awarded Aéro Club de France license No. 10 on 17 July. Paulhan was no stranger to British audiences; he competed in an early flight meeting in October 1909 at Blackpool, and shortly afterwards flew in an exhibition at the Brooklands motor racing circuit.〔 〕 Paulhan took part in many airshows, including several in the United States of America, and in Douai, where in July 1909 he set new records for altitude and flight duration. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1910 London to Manchester air race」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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