The Schneider Trophy became a high-speed engineering contest

French financier Jacques Schneider offered a £1,000 prize to improve civil aviation and general aircraft quality rather than reward speed alone. Rules such as the six-hour flotation requirement tried to ensure that entrants remained workable seaplanes instead of machines able to stay afloat only during takeoff and landing. Competitors nevertheless stripped weight wherever possible, and the event evolved from an endurance-minded trial into a speed contest. Even customs such as treating overtaking as unsporting could not prevent escalating international competition. The original ambition resembled Le Mans, with endurance and construction quality meant to matter, while the resulting high-speed engineering became useful preparation for the fighters of the Second World War.