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1930s National Air Races: Speed and SpectacleAviation History | 2 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
Despite the danger of the male-dominated sport, women played an active role in the National Air Races. The degree to which they were allowed to participate, however, varied from year to year. By the early 1930s, women were generally permitted to compete at the National Air Races in the separate women’s events. Chief among these events were the Aerol Trophy, the closed-course, free-for-all race that served as the women’s equivalent of the Thompson Trophy, and the Amelia Earhart Trophy, a special handicap race for women pilots. Subscribe Today
In addition, women were, at various times, permitted to compete in the men’s events as well. In 1932, for instance, women were permitted to compete with men in all the air-racing events except the Thompson Trophy.
This victory for the female sex proved to be short-lived, however. Growing concerns that aircraft had become too powerful for women pilots surfaced with the death of 25-year-old racing pilot Florence Klingensmith in the crash of her Gee Bee Model Y during a race at Chicago in 1933. As a result, women’s events were dropped altogether from the 1934 National Air Race, and in 1935 were limited to separate all-women’s events that were restricted to stock, commercially licensed aircraft with an airspeed of less than 150 mph.
Notable women pilots, including Amelia Earhart, opposed the restrictions, and by 1936 women were again permitted to participate in the men’s events. And they did it in style. That year, two women, Louise Thadens and Blanche Noyes, flying their Beechcraft C-17 Staggerwing, completed the run between New York’s Floyd Bennett Field and Los Angeles in 14 hours, 55 minutes, 1 second, to take the Bendix Trophy. Two years later, the Bendix Trophy would again be won by a woman when Jacqueline Cochran, in the cockpit of a Seversky SEV-S2, covered the distance between Los Angeles and Cleveland in 8 hours, 10 minutes, 31 seconds.
Although air racing was still popular among the crowds, industry interest in the sport declined in the late 1930s. While the commercial aviation industry was trying to convince the public of the safety of flying, the frequent crashes and fatalities at the air races were counterproductive to its efforts. In addition, world events increasingly took attention away from the annual racing event. For the industry, the war in Europe promised to be both a greater test of aircraft performance and a more lucrative market than any race could ever hope to be.
As the decade waned, it became increasingly difficult to attract enough planes to make up a field. With the retirement of the Henderson brothers after the 1939 races, the Nationals came to an end. The 1939 event was the last time the races were held until after World War II.
After the war, air racing was resurrected. But, despite the excitement of the racing events themselves, they never achieved the glory or popularity of the prewar competitions. The jet aircraft developed during the war were so fast that they were unsuitable for closed-course racing. Unlimited air racing continued with propeller-driven aircraft, but such planes were relics of the past, not the harbingers of the future, that their counterparts of the 1930s had been.
Even more important, however, the spread of the cold war made high-performance aircraft a state secret rather than the subject for public entertainment. Unlike the 1930s, the 1950s and 1960s were a time when the accomplishments of the world’s greatest aviators were hidden behind a veil of secrecy.
In all, the glory and popularity of the great air races of the 1930s were not to be recaptured. Nonetheless, the National Air Races of the 1930s have left behind them many great tales of excitement and danger. Truly, it was the golden age of American air racing.
This article was originally published in the May 1999 issue of Aviation History magazine. For more great articles subscribe to Aviation History magazine today! 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