A Little Information On The Supermarine 6B
The major air racing trophy contests of the 1920s and 1930s produced some of the most exciting competitions in aviation history and contributed significantly to the advancement of aeronautics. From the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II--a period known as the "Golden Age of Air Racing"--thousands of spectators flocked to watch these exciting races and witnessed several record-breaking performances.
Jacques Schneider, a wealthy French industrialist with an interest in advancing the speed of seaplanes, founded the international competition in the early 1910s. The Schneider Trophy racecourses ran out over open water. The stipulation was that if a nation won the trophy three times in a row, that country would become the race's overall permanent champion.
The first two Schneider Trophy Races, held in Monaco in April 1913 and 1914, were mainly competitions between teams of civilian aviators. The first race was won by French pilot Maurice Prevost. When World War I began, Schneider had to suspend the contest. When the race resumed after the war, government-backed military aviators started to dominate the major trophy races.
Britain permanently secured the Schneider trophy with the Supermarine 6B, a seaplane developed with government support. This plane was the built using the best technologies that America, England and Italy had used in their Schneider racers. In September 1931, the Supermarine set a new absolute world air speed record of 407.5 miles per hour; up to that time, the world record for any plane had been a 278.5 miles per hour. In the late 1930s, the Supermarine 6B become the model for one of World War II's best aircraft--the Spitfire fighters that helped defend England during the Battle of Britain.
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