The history of the Schneider Trophy is the history of aircraft development. When Jacques Schneider devised and inaugurated the Coupe d’Aviation Maritime race for seaplanes in 1913, no-one could have predicted the profound effect the Series would have on aircraft design and aeronautical development, not to mention world history. Howard Pixton’s 1914 victory in a Sopwith Tabloid biplane surprisingly surpassed the performance of monoplanes and other manufacturers turned back to biplanes. During The Great War aerial combat was almost entirely conducted by biplanes, with their low landing speeds, rapid climb rates and maneuverability. Post-war the Races resumed in 1920. The American Curtiss racing aircraft set the pattern for the 1920s, making way for Harold Mitchell’s Supermarines in the 1930’s. Having won the 1927 race at Venice Mitchell developed his ground-breaking aircraft into the iconic Spitfire powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. This new generation of British fighter aircraft were to play a decisive role in defeating the Luftwaffe and thwarting the Nazis’ invasion plans. This is a fascinating account of the air race series that had a huge influence on the development of flight.

This new book charts the impact of the Schneider Trophy on aircraft design, and how air racing focused both flying skills and aircraft capability. In the early 20th century, interest in flying, building, and competing aircraft developed at a furious pace. The Trophy's enforced break during World War I saw the loss of some of the pilots and an increased focus on speed in aircraft construction; when the contests restarted in 1919, a new breed of pilots took part, with combat and aerobatic experience. During the "Golden Years of Aviation," there were clashes between government sponsorship and private venture, and resounding defeats that focused designers such as Reginald Mitchell into designing specific racing machines. The government eventually began to sponsor the British entries, and the RAF HighSpeed Flight was formed to fly the racers, finally winning the Trophy outright in 1931, when the shadow of war was looming.

'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines meets Le Mans. Hugely entertaining. And deadly serious' Rowland White, Author of Vulcan 607 It was the greatest international competition of its day - a thrilling, globe-trotting, high speed air racing series that married cutting-edge technology with astonishing skill, bravery and danger. Duelling at 400 mph just a few feet from sea surface left pilots little margin for error. For over a decade, as aircraft of Great Britain, the United States, France and Italy fought for the prize, the Schneider Trophy represented the pinnacle of aviation development. A succession of world records fell to machines that combined super-charged brute power with streamlined good looks. With the RAF's Supermarine S6B, legendary aircraft designer R.J Mitchell, honed the genius that produced the Spitfire, while Rolls-Royce advanced the state-of-the-art with a powerful V-12 engine that paved the way for its war-winning masterpiece, the Merlin.

Timed to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of the Schneider Trophy, this book is a history of over one hundred different aircraft that contested the trophy between 1913 and 1931. The book includes amazing drawings and photographs of the aircraft that have never been seen before.

Announced in 1912, the Schneider Trophy stole the imaginations of pioneering aircraft manufacturers in America, France, Britain and Italy, as they competed in a series of air races that attracted a hugely popular following. Perhaps inevitably, the dynamism of rival engineering led to the most potent military fighters of World War Two and Reginald Mitchell's record-breaking supermarine seaplanes morphed into the Spitfire. 'Wings Over Water' tells the story of the Schneider air races afresh and also examines the wider politics and society of the early twentieth-century that framed the event.

Three years after American raceplanes failed dismally in the most important air race of 1920, a French magazine lamented that American "pilots have broken the records which we, here in France, considered as our own for so long." The Pulitzer Trophy Air Races (1920 through 1925), endowed by the sons of publisher Joseph Pulitzer in his memory, brought about this remarkable turnaround. Pulitzer winning speeds increased from 157 to 249 mph, and Pulitzer racers, mounted on floats, twice won the most prestigious international air race--the Schneider Trophy Race for seaplanes. Airplanes, engines, propellers, and other equipment developed for the Pulitzers were sold domestically and internationally. More than a million spectators saw the Pulitzers; millions more read about them and watched them in newsreels. This, the first book about the Pulitzers, tells the story of businessmen, generals and admirals who saw racing as a way to drive aviation progress, designers and manufacturers who produced record-breaking racers, and dashing pilots who gave the races their public face. It emphasizes the roles played by the communities that hosted the races--Garden City (Long Island), Omaha, Detroit and Mt. Clemens, Michigan, St. Louis, and Dayton. The book concludes with an analysis of the Pulitzers' importance and why they have languished in obscurity for so long.