The summer of 1914 was supposed to be one filled with the milestones of aviation. Glenn Curtiss, 36, who had first demonstrated aerial bombing on the beach at Atlantic City and set up a flying station there for his hydroplane, had taken up a challenge. To mark the centennial of the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812, the London Daily Mail was offering a prize of 10,000 pounds to the first aeroplane to fly across the Atlantic.