The book describes through the newspaper reporting of the events of all of the fourteen Daily Mail flying prize winners from 1907-1919: Roe, Farman, Brabazon, Bl?riot, Paulhan, de Lessep, Paulhan a second time, Moisant, Beaumont, Sopwith, Hamel, Brock, Alcock and Brown; and Gatherwood. Most of these names remain in history as great air pioneers.
The newspaper reporting at that time tells you why:
In Europe in 1906, following the Wright brothers' success in the first flight by man in a powered aircraft in 1903, progress in manned flight was slowly coming to fruition in France and Germany but not in Britain. In November, 1906, only a short time after Santos-Dumont performed the first successful flight in Europe, Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail, was prompted to announce the offer of a prize of ?10,000 for a flight from London to Manchester.
Through this offer, Lord Northcliffe took Britain into the international world of flying. The prize offer encouraged the pioneers, and not surprisingly, the prize was won within four years of the offer.
Even though, the Wright brothers were capable of crossing the English Channel first, they did not for various reasons. In 1909, Louis Bl?riot garnered the Daily Mail prize for this feat plus acquiring everlasting world wide fame.
In April, 1913, the Daily Mail again startled the world with the offer of ?10,000 for the first non-stop cross-Atlantic flight. World War I interrupted any attempts for the prize. Post the war, a number of groups flocked to Newfoundland to try and succeed for the unprecedented flight. Alcock and Brown in their Vickers Vimy aircraft on June 14-15, 1919 performed the first non-stoptrans-Atlantic flight going from Newfoundland to Ireland.
Experience the ventures of early these aviation pioneers just as readers did at the time with "splash" as the "Chief" (Lord Northcliffe) would say.