ANSWER
The Orteig Prize, offered by hotel owner Raymond Orteig, was $25,000 to the first person or persons to fly non-stop from New York to Paris, or vice versa. Others attempted and failed, but Charles Lindbergh won the prize with his famous trans-Atlantic flight in 1927. Flying solo was not a condition of the prize; it was just a means to keep the weight down, thus requiring less fuel for the long flight. It is unlikely that Lindbergh would have attempted the flight had it not been for the Orteig Prize.
The Orteig Prize was also the inspiration behind the "X Prize", which promises $10 million to the first team to launch three people 100 km into space, and return them safely, then repeat the flight with the same spacecraft within two weeks time.
WHO GOT IT RIGHT: John Sterling, Matthew Harrington, Robin Campbell, Marika Thiessen, Brian Hitchcox, JP Weigt, Linda Ging, Wil Faulkner, Bob Milligan, James Forsyth, Drew Sonetirot, Andie J, and Marc Quinlivan.
