Schneider Cup established in 1912

On December 5, 1912 at an Aero Club de France banquet to award the Gordon Bennett Prize, Jacques Schneider, son of an industrialist, announced that he was founding a new contest. He established an annual race for seaplanes with a prize of 1,000 pounds and a trophy for the winner. The conditions of the race called for a level of precision that added to the race's appeal and would drawn thousands of spectators to the event. The qualifying tests included the following:

• Each contestant had to move over the water in rough seas beyond he starting line under its own power; 
• start and land after executing a loop; 
• move on the water under its own power at a minimum velocity of 12 mph over a half-mile stretch between buoys;
• repeat the above procedure; 
• then start and land once again. 

The machine also had to stay moored for six hours to prove that it was seaworthy.

The first Schneider Cup race took place in Monte Carlo on April 6, 1913 and a Morane-Saulnier, two Nieuports, and a Deperdussin qualified out of the 24 entries.

(source: Conquerors of the Air, The Evolution of Aircraft, 1968, Heiner Emde and Carlo Demand)