VAST "DAILY MAIL" PRIZES.

THE AIR PROBLEM.

THE WATERPLANE BRITAIN'S BEST WEAPON.

£5,000 PRIZE, CIRCUIT OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

£10,000 FLIGHT ACROSS ATLANTIC

Aeroplane, Waterplane, or Airship?

That is the principal problem for these islands today.

Our problem is not the French problem or the German problem.

The French, who have had much more experience in the air than any other nation, while constructing a certain number and closely watching the development of airships not greatly dissimilar to Parsevals and Zeppelins, concentrate on the aeroplane, and are just as much ahead in the world in that respect to-day as they were in motor- cars fifteen years ago.

The Germans have produced remarkable airships, swift in fine weather, capable of lifting great weights, yet difficult to manage. But in the matter of aeroplanes their results bear no comparison with those of France.

In the United Kingdom, surrounded as it is by water, a number of those who have paid great attention to the subject, including the same minds of The Daily Mail who years ago offered prizes for aeroplane development that were ridiculed by all except those in the inner circle of aeronautics, believe that, while not neglecting the construction and study of dirigible balloons, every effort should be made to promote the development of the waterplane.

[ . . . ]

We offer £10,000 to the first person who crosses the Atlantic from any point in the United States, Canada, or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland in seventy-two continuous hours. The flight may be made, of course, either way across the Atlantic.

This prize is open to pilots of any nationality and machines of foreign as well as British construction.

[ . . . ]

In order to give an additional impetus to the development of waterplanes, and that the prize may be speedily won, we have extended the time to seventy-two hours, and allow a flight from any point in Newfoundland. The distance from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Valentia Island, Ireland, is far shorter than the distance mentioned by the Comte de Lambert, being about 1,880 miles.