Michelin celebrates centenary of ‘Grand Prize’

Back in 1908, when manned flight was still in its infancy, brothers André and Edouard Michelin proposed a contest to encourage the development of the aviation industry, launching the 100,000-franc (around £200,000 in today’s money) “Michelin Grand Prize.” While Michelin says leading specialists of the day considered the criteria for winning the prize – namely taking off from Paris before flying over the Arc de Triomphe, turning towards Clermont-Ferrand, flying over the cathedral spires and safely landing on top of the nearby Puy de Dôme mountain – a feat that would remain unachievable for many years, the Michelin brothers thought it could be accomplished within a decade. As it turns out, they only needed to wait three years before the prize was claimed, and now the French tyre major is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of this milestone.

On March 7, 1911, Eugène Renaux and Albert Senouque won the Michelin Grand Prize by steering their biplane along the prescribed course on a flight that lasted five hours and ten minutes – fifty minutes shorter than the maximum time allowed under the Michelin brothers’ rules. Michelin believes that by supporting the fledging aviation industry, André and Edouard Michelin “not only demonstrated exceptional vision and intuition, they also pushed back the boundaries, innovating and opening up new research possibilities in every field, in a commitment to improving mobility.” The company says this mission remains one of its core concerns a century later and the inspiration for its corporate signature, “a better way forward.”

To mark the centenary, between February 23 and March 20, 2011, L’Aventure Michelin will celebrate the exploit with a travelling exhibition retracing the 1911 flight. In lobby of the Michelin museum itself, contemporary pictures will also hang alongside a Bréguet 14 biplane, one of 2,000 aircraft built by Bréguet and the two founding Michelin brothers during the First World War.