Early History (to 1914)
Less than six years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, the world's first air meet was held at Rheims, France, in August of 1909. Although it was devoted largely to demonstrations for spectators who had never seen airplanes before, prizes were offered for the highest altitude achieved, longest flight, most passengers carried, and the fastest one-, two-, and three-lap flights over a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) course.
Glenn H. Curtiss of the U.S. won the two biggest prizes, the James Gordon Bennett Trophy for the fastest two laps and the Prix de la Vitesse for the fastest three laps. Curtiss, who had earlier built and raced bicycles and motorcyles, used the $5,000 Bennett Trophy prize money to establish his own aircraft company.
That set the pattern for air racing in its infancy. As in the early days of horse racing, prizes were established "for the improvement of the breed." Many of the early racers were designers and builders, as well as pilots.
The first U.S. air meet took place less than a year later at Los Angeles, where Curtiss set a world record of 55 miles an hour for a plane carrying one passenger. In October of 1910, a second international air meet was sponsored by the Aero Club of America at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The Bennett Trophy race was again a feature of the meet, which attracted dozens of planes and pilots from Europe and the U.S.
Bennett Trophy racing was suspended in 1914 because of World War I, but a final race was held in 1920, then the French retired the trophy permanently by winning for the third straight time. The 1912 winner, France's Jules Vedrines, was the first flier to average more than 100 miles an hour.
Among the other important trophies offered during the early years of aviation were:
- The Michelin Cup, for the longest flight between sunrise and sundown of a single day. The first competition was won by Orville Wright in 1908.
- The London Daily Mail prize for the first flight over the English Channel, won by Louis Bleriot of France in 1909.
- The William Randolph Hearst Prize of $50,000, offered in 1911 for the first pilot who could fly across the continent in 30 days or less. The prize inspired the first trans-continental flight, by Cal Rodgers, but he didn't get the money because it took him 49 days on a flight that included 19 crashes.
- The Jacques Schneider Trophy, for seaplane races over open water, initiated in 1913. As with the Bennett Trophy, competition was suspended during World War I, but it resumed after the war.
Between the Wars (1919-1939)
Several other major trophies and prizes were established almost as soon as World War I ended. Among them was another London Daily Mail prize, of £10,000, for the first non-stop flight between England and America, which was claimed by two British military pilots in 1919.
Also in 1919, a New York hotel owner offered a $25,000 prize for a solo, non-stop flight from New York to France. That ultimately led to one of the most famous flights in history when Charles A. Lindbergh claimed the prize in 1927.
An important catalyst for air racing in the U.S. was the Pulitzer Trophy, announced in 1919 for international air races held in this country. The first race took place in 1920 on Long Island and was won by an American, Corliss Moseley, who averaged 156.5 mph over a closed-circuit course before a crowd of more than 25,000 spectators.
That led to the establishment in 1921 of a national air meet. More competitive events were added to the program and the meet became known as the National Air Races in 1924.
Until then, almost all airplane racing was actually against the clock. Competitors flew individual time trials, with the fastest time winning. But the John L. Mitchell Trophy races, inaugurated in 1924, featured head-to-head competition, with all of the planes flying a closed-circuit course around pylons.
While the Pulitzer Trophy was better known, the Mitchell Trophy races were more popular with spectators. By 1929, there were twenty-seven closed-circuit events at the National Air Races, which were held at Cleveland Municipal Airport. In addition, the airport was the finish for nine point-to-point races.
One of them was the Women's Air Derby, which began on August 13 in California and ended August 20 in Cleveland. There were twenty competitors, including Amelia Earhart. After World War II, this event inspired the All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race, better known as the "Powder Puff Derby."
More than 500,000 tickets were sold for the 1929 races, which took place over a ten-day period. That was the zenith of air racing as a spectator sport. The Great Depression, combined with the decreasing novelty value of flight, cut into attendance figures during the 1930s.
Nevertheless, the National Air Races continued through 1939. They were held in Cleveland every year except 1933 and 1936, when Los Angeles hosted them. And two major events still drew sizeable crowds.
The first was the Thompson Trophy Race, inaugurated in 1929 for free-for-all, closed-circuit competition. That race attracted an estimated 100,000 people in 1937. The Bendix Trophy, established in 1931 for a trans-continental flight, also evoked a fair amount of interest. The race was usually run in two segments, with competitors flying from California to Cleveland to claim the trophy and then continuing to the East Coast to complete the trans-continental crossing.
In the two years when the National Air Races were held in Los Angeles, though, Bendix Trophy competitors took off from New York and the race was truly trans-continental.
Since World War II
The important role of air power in World War II spurred new public interest in air racing and the National Air Races resumed at Cleveland in 1946, under the auspices of the War Department. The Bendix and Thompson Trophies were contested in two divisions, one for propeller-driven planes and one for jets.
In the 1949 Thompson Trophy race, one of the prop planes, a World War II P-51 fighter, crashed into a house, killing a woman and her child as well as the pilot. That, in effect, marked the end of the National Air Races. The only competition of any note in 1950 was the Continental Trophy race for "midget" planes at the Detroit Air Fair. The trophy had been introduced at the 1948 National Air Races.
When the National Air Show was established in 1951, racing was restricted to military planes, except for the Continental Trophy competition. The show was held annually through 1957, when the Defense Department ruled that military aircraft could no longer take part.
There were still a lot of fliers around who wanted to race, though. Many of them were former fighter pilots who had bought war surplus planes--either pursuit planes, such as the P-38 Lightning and the P-51 Mustang, or trainers, such as the AT-6 and SNJ. Others were civilians who built their own small planes. Still others were antique aircraft buffs who owned bi-planes from the 1920s and 1930s.
They formed an organization called the Professional Race Pilots Association, now the National Air-Racing Group, and kept the sport alive at local and regional meets and shows until 1964, when Reno revived the National Air Races to help celebrate the centennial of Nevada's statehood.
In addition to a race from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Reno, the program included closed-circuit competition for five classes of aircraft. Among the extra added attractions were the national aerobatics and national balloon championships and parachuting competitions.
The Reno National Air Races have been held annually ever since. While other air shows often include racing on their programs, Reno offers the world's only really major air races. There is currently competition in five categories: Unlimited, Formula One, Bi-Plane, AT6-SNJ, and Jet.