centres of aviation such as Issy-les-Moulineaux, Brooklands and Hendon Aerodrome attracted crowds of curious onlookers. The first aviation meet was held in Juivisy in May 1909 and was followed by the Grand Semaine d'aviation in August: later in the year aviation meetings were held in England at Doncaster and Blackpool, and exhibition flights were made in many European cities, including Berlin, Vienna and Bucharest. The first public flying display at Brooklands, already established as a motor-racing circuit, was made at the end of October 1909 by Louis Paulhan: around 2,000 spectators watched him fly to a height of 720 feet. Brooklands soon became one of Britain's major centres of aviation activity, with several flying schools. In 1910 Louis Paulhan and Claude Grahame-White competed to win the Daily Mail prize for a flight between London and Manchester, attracting Major long-distance aeroplane races, such as the Circuit of Europe and the Aerial Derby began in 1911 - and also attracted enormous crowds; while in the same year in the United States, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois had an important aerodrome-format aviation site dedicated in Cicero, IL that operated for several years before its closure and relocation in 1916. Military interest The military use of balloons was already widespread: balloons had been employed in the American Civil War – where Ferdinand von Zeppelin had his first exposure to lighter-than-air flight – and the Boer War. Many military traditionalists refused to regard aeroplanes as more than toys, but these were counterbalanced by advocates of the new technology, and both the US and the major European nations had established heavier-than-air aviation arms by the end of 1911. France had the most air-minded army. The balloon school at Chalais-Meudon had long been a centre of innovation, and in December 1909, the French Department of War began to send army officers and NCOs for pilot training at civilian schools. In March 1910, the Établissement Militaire d'Aviation was created to conduct experiments with aircraft, and on 22 October 1910 the Aéronautique Militaire was created as a branch of the Army. In February 1912 the French military estimates set aside twelve million francs (equal to nearly half a million pounds) for aviation, and claimed to have 208 aeroplanes, with the intention of increasing that number to 334 by the end of the year, At this time the British government planned to spend £133,000 on aviation, of which £83,000 was