In a contest sponsored by the government of South Africa, with a prize of £10,000, put up by the Daily Mail for a flight from Cairo to Cape Town, Lt. Col. Pierre van Ryneveld and Major C. J. Quintin Brand took off from Brooklands aerodrome for Cape Town, South Africa on February 4, 1920 in a Vickers Vimy named The Silver Queen. They flew to Cairo and then on the 11th of February 530 miles from Cairo the engine failed and they made an emergency landing at Korosko. The plane was wrecked but the crew was unhurt. The RAF placed another Vickers Vimy at their disposal and after the instruments from the first plane were installed in the replacement the Silver Queen II took off from Heliopolis on February 22. At Bulawayo, a week later, the Silver Queen II was also wrecked. Again the crew was uninjured, and their completed their flight to Cape Town in a third plane on March 20.