The Daily Mail Circuit of Britain air race was a British cross-country air race that took place from 1911 until 1914, with prizes donated by the Daily Mail newspaper on the initiative of its proprietor, Lord Northcliffe. It was one of several races and awards offered by the paper between 1906 and 1925.

The 1911 race took place on 22 July and was a 1,010 miles (1,630 km) event with 11 compulsory stops and a circular route starting and finishing at Brooklands in Surrey. The winner was Jean Conneau in a Blériot XI who took 22 hours, 28 minutes to complete the course, an average speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) and received the first prize of £10,000. The runner up was Jules Védrines in a Morane-Borel monoplane with James Valentine, in a Deperdussin, third.

The 1913 race was for British seaplanes and had a first prize of £5,000. Only one aircraft started the course; it was damaged when landing near Dublin, and did not complete the course.

The 1914 race, also offering a prize of £5,000, was to have been held between 1 and 15 August.^[1] It was cancelled due to the outbreak of the First World War.

The 1911 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain was a contest for the fastest completion of a course around Great Britain.^[2] The proprietors of the Daily Mail offered a £10,000 prize to any aviator to complete an approximately 1,000-mile (1,600 km) circuit of Britain in the shortest time.^[2] The contest was run by the Royal Aero Club and was held between 22 July 1911 and 5 August 1911. Following the success of the £10,000 competition for the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the editor announced that a further £10,000 prize would be awarded, it would either be between London and Edinburgh and return or London and Paris and return.^[3]

It was decided that the competition would be a tour round Great Britain and a committee of the Royal Aero Club was formed to set the rules and organize the competition on behalf of the Daily Mail.^[3] For an entrance fee of £100 the event was open to all licensed aviators, and as well as the Daily Mail prize a number of smaller prizes were also offered.^[3] The circuit was to start and finish at Brooklands, and the competitors had to land at Hendon, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, Carlisle, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter, Salisbury and Brighton.^[3] Four competitors completed the course, the first and winner of the prize was the Frenchman Lieut Jean Louis Conneau, flying under the name of André Beaumont.^[4]

The 1913 race, offering prize of £5,000, was for floatplanes, which had to be of all-British construction. The course, totalling 1,540 mi (2,480 km) had to be completed within 72 hours, although since no flying was allowed on Sundays this period was in practice a day longer.

The race was divided into the following stages:^[18]

• Southampton to Ramsgate — 144 mi (232 km)
• Ramsgate to Yarmouth — 96 mi (154 km)
• Yarmouth to Scarborough — 150 mi (240 km)
• Scarborough to Aberdeen — 218 mi (351 km)
• Aberdeen to Cromarty — 134 mi (216 km)
• Cromarty to Oban — 94 mi (151 km)
• Oban to Dublin — 222 mi (357 km)
• Dublin to Falmouth — 280 mi (450 km)
• Falmouth to Southampton — 202 mi (325 km)

Entrants included the Cody Waterplane, the Radley-England Waterplane and the Sopwith Circuit of Britain floatplane. Cody was killed during a test flight of his design on 7 August when his aircraft broke up in flight, and the Sopwith, flown by Harry Hawker with Harry Kauper as passenger, was the only aircraft to start; it retired after being damaged in an emergency landing near Dublin having completed about two-thirds of the course. Hawker was given a prize of £1,000 for his effort.