Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne

The meeting saw the breaking of the world record for distance, a flight of 180 km (110 mi) by Henri Farman, as well as the debut of the lightweight Gnome engine, which would achieve much acclaim.

Almost all of the prominent aviators of the time took part, and the 500,000[4] visitors included Armand Fallières, the president of the French Republic and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George.

Amenities for the spectators included a restaurant that could seat 600 people,[5] 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.

This was the most prestigious event of the meeting, and was a competition between national teams, sponsored by Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald and was being held for the first time.

The qualification trials for the French team on the Sunday morning were hampered by the weather conditions, with the most successful competitor, Eugène Lefebvre flying a French-built Wright biplane, narrowly failing to complete two laps of the course: the only other pilot to make a convincing flight was Louis Blériot, and the third place was later given to Hubert Latham flying an Antoinette monoplane, on account of his performance in trials for the Prix de la Vitesse held later that day, during which "the wonderful and unprecedented spectacle was witnessed of seven machines in the air at one time".

The Gnome, designed and manufactured by the Seguin brothers, was both light in weight and relatively reliable, and was a major advance in aviation technology: Louis Blériot later saying "it enabled the industry to advance by leaps and bounds"[13] Three other aircraft were flown using this engine at Reims, the others being the Farman biplanes belonging to Cockburn and Roger Sommer and the Voisin belonging to Louis Paulhan[14] Offering four prizes of 10,000, 5,000, 3,000 and 2,000 francs, for the fastest time over three laps of the circuit.

The final attempts for this were held on the last day, and after Curtiss' narrow victory over Blériot spectators were expecting an exciting duel.

The meeting effectively demonstrated the practicality of heavier than air aviation: it was evident that the major problem was the unreliability of the engines being used.

Many previous notable aviation feats, such as Louis Blériot's recent crossing of the English Channel, had been made near the times of sunrise or sunset, when the air is often very still.

The destruction by fire of Louis Blériot's aircraft on the last day was the most spectacular accident to occur during the meeting, and Blériot had been involved in another accident earlier in the week while practising for the passenger carrying event, when he had to make an emergency landing due to engine trouble, Unfortunately there was a troop of dragoons in the way: in swerving to avoid them, he collided with the railings separating the spectator area from the flying track.