The Circuit de l'Est was a six-stage air race organized by the newspaper Le Matin, [1] which took place in August 1910.
General Foch, who had followed the race attentively, declared a few weeks later during the first aerial maneuvers in Picardy, to the Matin delegate, Robert de Beauplan: "All that, you see, is sport: but for the army, the air force, it's zero".
The French army aviation service committed three crews to this event.
Alfred Leblanc won the race, and won the prize of 100,000 francs reserved for the winner (i.e. approximately €366,000 in 2017), Émile Aubrun finished second, each piloting a Blériot XI monoplane powered by a Gnome engine of 50hp.
They were the only survivors of the 35 entered, of which only ten started from Issy-lès-Moulineaux.