Air racing
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Air racing is a sport that involves small aircraft.
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[edit] History
The first event in air racing history was held in 1909; the Grand Week of the Champagne at Reims, France, drawing many of the most important plane makers and pilots of the era, as well as celebrities and royalty. The premier event--the James Gordon Bennett Trophy-- was won by Glenn Curtiss, who beat the second place finisher by five seconds. Curtiss was named "Champion Air Racer of the World". This event was held yearly at different locations. In 1934, the MacRobertson Race from England to Australia air race began, with the winning deHavilland Comet flown by Scott and Campbell Black.
Between 1913 and 1931 the Schneider Trophy seaplane race was run, which was significant in advancing aeroplane design, particularly in the fields of aerodynamics and engine design, and would show its results in the best fighters of World War II.
In 1921, the United States instituted the National Air Meets, which became the National Air Races in 1924. In 1929, the Women's Air Derby became a part of the National Air Races circuit. The National Air Races lasted until 1949. The Cleveland Air Races was another important event. That year, pilot Bill Odom suffered a crash during a race, killing himself and two other people in a nearby house. In 1947, an All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR) dubbed the "Powder Puff Derby" was established, running until 1977.
In 1964, Bill Stead, a Nevada rancher, pilot, and unlimited hydroplane racing champion, organized the first Reno Air Races at a small dirt strip called the Sky Ranch, located between Sparks, Nevada, and Pyramid Lake. The National Championship Air Races were soon moved to the Reno Stead Airport and have been held there every September since 1966. The five-day event attracts around 200,000 people, and includes racing around courses marked out by pylons for six classes of aircraft: Unlimited, Formula One, Sport Biplane, AT-6, Sport and Jet. It also features civil airshow acts, military flight demonstrations, and a large static aircraft display. Other promoters have run pylon racing events across the USA, including races in Mojave, California in 1978; at Hamilton, California, in 1988; in Phoenix, Arizona in 1994 and 1995; and in Tunica, Mississippi in 2005.
In 1970, American Formula One racing was exported to Europe (Great Britain, and then to France), where almost as many races have been held as in the U.S.A.
Red Bull has created a series called the Red Bull Air Race World Series in which competitors fly singly through a series of gates, between which they must perform a prescribed series of aerobatics maneuvers. Usually held over water near large cities, the series has attracted large crowds and brought substantial media interest in air racing for the first time in decades.
[edit] Notable air racers
- Louis Bleriot
- Jacqueline Cochran
- Glenn Curtiss
- Jimmy Doolittle
- Darryl Greenamyer
- Kevin Eldredge
- Skip Holm
- Jimmy Leeward
- Tony LeVier
- Blanche Noyes
- Jon Sharp
- Bill Stead
[edit] Trivia
- Set in the 1930s, the movie Porco Rosso briefly touches on the early days of air racing.
- "The Rocketeer" comic books feature air racing prominently as the story is set during the 1930s.
