sentences:  Rodman Wanamaker was a pioneer in sponsoring record-breaking aviation projects and in particular and especially an important early backer of transatlantic flight development.In 1913 he commissioned Glen Curtiss and his aircraft company to further develop his experimental flying boat designs into a scaled-up version capable of trans-Atlantic crossing in response to the 1913 challenge prize offered by the London newspaper "The Daily Mail".The resulting "America" flying boat designed under John Cyril Porte's supervision did not cross the Atlantic because of the outbreak of World War I, but was sufficiently promising that the Royal Navy purchased the two prototypes and ordered an additional fifty aircraft of the model for anti-submarine patrolling and air-sea rescue tasks, roles flying boats of today still perform.