$50,000 For Flight Across Atlantic.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 1, 1913:
Daily Mail Offer for First Crossing by Waterplane in 72 Hours.
POSSIBLE, SAYS LAMBERT
French Inventor Says Machine Must Alight En Route to Replenish Fuel.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, March 31.— Lord Northcliffe in this mornings Daily Mail offers a prize of $50,000 to the first person making a transatlantic flight in a hydro-aeroplane in seventy-two consecutive hours between any point in the United States, Canada, or Newfoundland, and any point in Great Britain or Ireland, in either direction. The contest is open to all nationalities.
    In connection with the offer The Mail prints an interview with Count de Lambert, who says that within ten years the Atlantic will be crossed by hydro-aeroplanes between sunrise and sunset of a Summer's day. He is the inventor of the hydro-aeroplane, and a pupil of Wilbur Wright. When he was asked what were the chief difficulties of a transatlantic flight, Count de Lambert said:
    "The two great difficulties will be to keep one's course, if one is out of sight of ships and the wind changes, and to avoid being smashed up by waves when one alights to replenish his petrol. The trouble with the wind is that you may keep on your course by the compass and yet all the while, without knowing it, may be drifting. It is absolutely necessary that the machine be able to float for a week, say, in case the engines fail. As things are to-day no machine can get across without stopping en route for fuel.
    "Take a machine weighing a ton, everything included. Suppose the whole distance across to be 2,000 miles, and the machine to fly at a moderate speed, 62 miles an hour. To drive the machine 90 feet a second means an effective thrust of 440 pounds, or 66 horse power. To obtain this a motor of 120 horse power is required, consuming 110 pounds of petrol an hour. Thus, in order to do the distance in thirty-two hours a one-ton machine would have to start with one and a half tons of fuel, which is absurd.
    "Hence, before we can fly across without stopping we must find a better fuel than petrol, or a more efficient motor, or a machine which requires less than a 440-pound thrust; and no doubt we shall succeed. Meanwhile I consider the scheme of flying across with stoppages to replenish perfectly practicable. It is merely a question of luck and having two days' calm weather. A slight following wind would make a great difference.
    "One would use, I suppose, two engines, or perhaps an engine of which half could be in use at a time, as is sometimes done with a fourteen-cylinder Gnome. It will be easy to arrange for the man who is not driving to lie down and rest. The hydro-aeroplane is the machine of the future for crossing water."
    The Mail also offers a prize of $25,000 for the first person piloting a hydro-aeroplane of British invention and construction around England, Scotland, and Wales in seventy-two hours.