- Raymond Orteig
Raymond Orteig (1870 - 1939) was the
New York City hotel owner who offered theOrteig Prize for the first non-stoptransatlantic flight between New York andParis .Orteig was born in the south of
France , in Louvie-Juzon, Bearn, but emigrated at age 12, arriving in New York onOctober 13 ,1882 to join an uncle living in New York. He started working as a bus boy and cafe manager but soon managed to acquire two hotels (the Hotel Lafayette and the Brevoort Hotel inGreenwich Village ).Orteig offered the prize in 1919 after attending a dinner honouring the American ace
Eddie Rickenbacher . Many of the speeches involved Franco-American friendship and Rickenbacher had looked forward to the day that the two countries were linked by air. He was also strongly inspired by contact with French pilots, members of a French mission sent duringWorld War I , in 1917-18, to New York to help the USA build the US Air Force.The prize was won in 1927 by
Charles Lindbergh .Biography (in french) : "Du Bearn a New York, Raymond Orteig (1870-1939), mecene de l'aviation" by Alain J-B. Lalanne, ed.Marrimpouey, Pau, France.
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