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1930s National Air Races: Speed and Spectacle| Aviation History | 2 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
Death was not an uncommon occurrence in any form of air racing in the 1930s. Close flying, low altitudes, and high speeds, however, made the Thompson Trophy races particularly dangerous events. Death was a constant companion for the competitors, and each year the death of another competitor seemed to mar the event. Subscribe Today
During the first Thompson Trophy Race in Chicago in 1930, a young Marine pilot, Captain Arthur Page, was leading the race and seemed well on his way to winning in his XF6C-6, an extensively rebuilt Curtiss Hawk fighter to which, among other things, an 800-hp Curtiss Conqueror engine had been added. Then, on lap 17, as Page was rounding the home pylon in front of the grandstand, his plane shuddered, went into a slow roll, and crashed. No one ever knew what happened to his plane. Charles ‘Speed Holman, in a Laird Solution that had been completed only hours before the start of the race, went on to win. Page survived the crash, only to die from head injuries a few days later.
The legacy of death that was begun in that first race was to follow the Thompson Trophy for many years. In fact, death seemed to stalk the victors of the Thompson Trophy. Both 1930 winner Speed Holman and 1931 winner Lowell Bayles were killed in competitive crashes within a few months of their Thompson Trophy victories, and in 1933 winner Jimmy Wedell was killed in a non-racing crash in June 1934. On the eve of the 1934 race, only one former winner, 1932 champion Jimmy Doolittle, who had retired shortly after his victory, remained alive.
The prestige of the Thompson Trophy was, in itself, sufficient to assure the status of the National Air Races as one of the world’s premier aviation meets. This reputation of the Nationals was enhanced still further, however, when the Bendix Trophy, an annual cross-country race for unlimited planes, was added to the program in 1931.
Point-to-point racing, rather than closed-course events, was probably the most common type of racing in the 1920s and 1930s. It was, however, less popular with the crowds than the closed-circuit races. Confined to their seats in grandstands, the spectators got little more than a brief glimpse of the racers as they flew across the field to cross the finish line at the end of the race.
Nonetheless, the challenge of long-distance racing attracted the attention of the aviation industry, and the idea of a cross-country race appealed to the popular imagination. With the Bendix Trophy, just such an event became an integral part of the National Air Races. And, like the Thompson Trophy, the Bendix Trophy quickly became the most important contest of its kind in the world.
The routes over which the Bendix Trophy Race was run varied. When the Nationals were held in Cleveland, the race was run between Los Angeles, and the northeast Ohio city. When the Naionals were held in Los Angeles, as they were for two years, the Bendix Trophy became a truly transcontinental race, being run between New York and Los Angeles.
Consistent with the tradition of American barnstorming, the National Air Races, more than any of its predecessors, relied upon the crowd for its existence. Most of the earlier air-racing contests had relied heavily upon industry sponsorship and government-supported teams. The National Air Races, on the other hand, were basically shows and, as such relied almost entirely upon ticket sales and paying spectators to cover the cost of the event.
During the Depression years, following the stock market crash of 1929, the event, like many other of the nation’s industries, was generally in a precarious financial situation. In 1934, for instance, admission to the races ranged from 50 cents to $2.50, lavish sums during those lean years. However, profits for the event were meager. In 1930, the National Air Races made only about $2,500. In 1933, the event just broke even, and in 1931 and 1932, it actually lost money, a loss which the backers had to make good. Nonetheless, the Nationals managed to survive the Depression, no small achievement considering the scope of the nation’s financial catastrophe. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
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2 Comments to “1930s National Air Races: Speed and Spectacle”
Most of this article is viably the truth. One inconsistency is that the pilot killed at the Indianapolis takeoff was Russell Boardman and not BayLes as stated. I will explain the death of Lowell Bayles in a shortly. Russell Boardman was a wealthy record breaking distance pilot who took major stock control of the Gee Bee operation after the death of Lowell Bayles. Through his vested power, he appointed himself the 1932 race pilot for the Gee Bee R1 racer. Just before the Cleveland national races Boardman borrowed a Gee Bee commercial plane for transportation and in what was to be his potentially lethal style, hastily pulled the little Gee Bee off the ground too quickly, too steeply, stalled and spun the plane into the trees. He survived but would not heal in time to Race the R1 in the Thompson trophy at Cleveland. Jim Doolittle without a plane after crash landing his Super Solution race plane due to landing gear mechanical problems, was asked to race the Gee Bee R1 by Zantford Granville. The rest of the story for the 1932 Thompson is history. Boardman, after healing from his injuries set out in 1933 to race the R1 in both the Bendix long distance races and the Thompson pylon speed races. The R1 was now fitted with an even larger Pratt & Whitney Hornet Engine and extra fuel tanks needed for the Bendix. These changes did not sit well with engineer Pete Miller and Zantford Granville, but as it always does, money talks. In Indianapolis Boardman was agitated when his teammate Russell Thaw in the R2 racer damaged a wingtip upon landing. Boardman topped off the tanks of the big R1 and hastily pulled the laden ship into the air only using a fraction of the available and much needed runway. The big racer went into a stall, rolled on it’s back, and crashed. Boardman died later, marking the financial end and company control of the Gee Bees. One must remember these were, after all, race planes, and you don’t fly them like a trainer and you don’t win races with a trainer. Just like performance aircraft today, the racers of that period required skills that were only endowed to a few top notch pilots at the time. Poor pilot choices for whatever reasons and design changes beyond the Granville Brother’s control were apparently at fault in most, if not all cases from that point on.
I’ll get back to Lowell Bayles now. Bayles, like Doolittle was an extremely talented pilot. Slim, quite and well liked, he was a gracious aviation hero and icon. Bayles was killed in an attempt to break the world land speed record at the Wayne County airport in Michigan on Dec. 5, 1931. The Gee Bee “Z” model had been refitted with a 750 HP Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340. At the speeds being approached at the time a phenomenon known as aileron flutter caused handling and structural problems not then understood. It is theorized that Bayles was hit, stunned, or knocked unconscious by a gas cap that came loose and blew though the windscreen. This caused a radical movement of the controls causing in-flight structural failure. The fact that two young boys found the gas cap and Bayle’s goggles far from crash site leads to this conclusion. An exact replica of the Gee Bee “Z” was built by Kimball Enterprises and tested in the mid 1990’s. It was tested and found to have definite aileron flutter above 240 mph. Since Bayles was said to be doing 314 mph at the time it is possible that flutter alone could have been the problem. Zantford Granville, Gee Bee founder, was devastated as Lowell Bayles was seen as one of the Granville Bother’s to him. The Granville’s did not take risks and many other engineers and pilots of the time touted them as great airplane builders. I is the Media that created the “death trap” myth. Contrary to popular belief the Granville’s always had an aeronautical engineer (Bob Hall and Pete Miller) aiding design and for the famous 1932 R1 actually did wind tunnel testing in NY, a new technology at the time. They were not backyard builders. Later Gee Bee planes were extensively modified by third party owners of the planes against the wishes of the Granville’s and flown by less than the very best pilots. The inexperience in piloting and design changes, led to a series of crashes bringing bad press to and tarnishing the Granville name.
By Wayne on Feb 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm