page_title: Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne
section_title: Grande Semaine  de la Champagne
hierarchical_section_title: Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne / Grande Semaine  de la Champagne
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph (taken from a catholic german magazin from 1910) of a biplane flying past the tribune of the Aviation week in Reims, France, August 22 - 29, 1909. Français&#160;: vue, depuis les tribunes du champs de courses des Grandes semaine d'aviation de la Champagne. Deutsch: Das Foto ist einer katholischen Illustrierten von 1910 entnommen (Deutscher Hausschatz, 1910, Heft 1, Seite 36) und zeigt den Vorbeiflug eines Doppeldeckers an der Tribüne der Flugwoche von Reims, Frankreich, von 22. August - 29. August 1909. Es wird kein Fotograf genannt.
context_page_description: The Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne was an 8-day aviation meeting held near Reims in France in 1909, so-named because it was sponsored by the major local champagne growers. It is celebrated as the first international public flying event, confirming the viability of heavier-than-air flight.
  It marked the first contest for the prestigious Gordon Bennett Trophy, sponsored by Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald, won by American Glenn Curtiss in competition with Louis Bleriot. The meeting saw the breaking of the world record for distance, a flight of 180 km by Henri Farman, as well as the debut of the lightweight Gnome engine, which would achieve much acclaim.
context_section_description: The Grand Semaine d'Aviation, held between 22 August and 29 August 1909, was  sponsored by many of the leading makers of champagne including Moët et Chandon and Mumm
  and organised by a committee headed by the Marquis de Polignac. It was the first international public flying event and was seen both at the time and by later historians as  marking the coming of age of heavier-than-air aviation.  Almost all of the prominent aviators of the time took part, and the 500,000 visitors included Armand Fallières, the President of the French Republic and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. It was held on the plain of Bétheny, about 5 km (3 mi) north of Reims, which later became the Reims – Champagne Air Base. A  large grandstand  was constructed for the event, together with a row of sheds to accommodate the aircraft. Next to the grandstand was the "Popular enclosure", complete with an enormous scoreboard.  Amenities for the spectators included a restaurant that could seat 600 people, an area of specially laid lawn with bandstands and flowerbeds, and a post office, from which 50,000 postcards were sent each day and nearly a million words dispatched  by press correspondents.  The spectator area was only a few hundred metres from the Laon-Reims railway line, and a temporary  station was provided.
  A rectangular competition course of 10 km (6.2 mi), marked by four pylons was set up for the various competitions, with the strip intended for taking off and landing in front of the grandstands, opposite which was the timekeepers hut, provided with a signalling system to indicate to the spectators which event was being competed for.  Flying conditions were primitive: the area over which much of the flying was to take place was farmland: some of the crops under cultivation had not been harvested and where this had been done there were haystacks: more than one flyer was to fall foul of these obstacles.
caption: A French built Wright Biplane flies in front of the packed grandstand at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation
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