Ultimately, both the Pc.7 and the twin-engine S.65 were excluded from the race. When the Royal Aero Club refused to postpone the contest to allow more time for Macchi to iron out the M.67’s problems, General Balbo announced that the Italian team is going to England merely to perform a gesture of chivalrous sportsmanship. Privately, he no doubt hoped against hope that one of the two M.67s might function properly just long enough to recover the trophy for Italy. Almost as an afterthought, Italy also entered a slightly redesigned Macchi M.52, the M.52R.

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Britain fielded two Gloster IVs, powered by 1,320-hp Napier Lion Mk.VIID engines, and two of Reginald Mitchell’s newest design, the S.6, powered by a new 1,920-hp engine developed by Rolls-Royce. Sir Henry Royce, scorning Isotta-Fraschini’s attempt to gain extra power by adding more cylinders, had sat on the beach near his home with three Rolls-Royce engineers and drawn his concept for a new V-12 engine in the sand with a stick. Essentially, it was a refined version of the Curtiss D-12, but instead of taking the risky step of raising cylinder compression, as the Italians had done, Royce proposed adding a supercharger — a mechanism that would force more air-fuel mixture into the cylinders than atmospheric pressure would normally admit. The first such engine, completed in May 1929, had produced 1,545 hp at 2,750 rpm before self-destructing in 15 minutes. After a dozen more disastrous failures, Rolls-Royce’s 14th R engine managed to sustain 1,850 hp for 100 minutes. On August 5, Mitchell’s first S.6, with Rolls-Royce’s new engine, took to the water off Calshot Castle, near Portsmouth, to begin trials.

More than a million people crowded the beach, Calshot Castle, yachts and the decks of the battleship Iron Duke as the 1929 Schneider Trophy race opened on September 7. Italian aviation enthusiasts sat transfixed beside their radios, knowing that Lieutenants Remo Cadringher and Giovanni Monti were risking their lives, as well as Italy’s honor, in the cockpits of their M.67s. Cadringher started the first 217.48-mile race with a thrilling burst of speed, but as he made the first turn, smoke and fumes suddenly poured into his cockpit, and the Macchi skidded wildly as its pilot, half-blind and choking, fought to regain control. Cadringher came out of a high-speed spin to find himself over land, but he courageously brought his plane back on course and completed one 33-mile lap at 284 mph before giving up and landing. At that point, his windscreen was so hazy from the smoke that he could not see the pylons marking the turns.

Monti averaged 301.5 mph on his first circuit, but as he began the second lap a pipe in his radiator burst, filling his cockpit with steam and boiling water. With his arms and legs scalded, Monti somehow managed to land and was taken to the hospital.

In contrast to the M.67s, both Supermarine S.6s behaved perfectly. Flight Lt. Henry R.D. Waghorn took the trophy with an average speed of 328.63 mph. Flying Officer R.L.R. Atcherley averaged 325.54 mph but was disqualified from second place when the judges ruled that he had cut inside a pylon in the first lap. Italy’s M.52R took the second prize by default, but Warrant Officer T. Dal Molin’s average speed was an embarrassing 44.458 mph less than the winner’s. Britain now stood one race away from permanent possession of the Schneider Trophy.

We have finished playing our part as sportsmen, Balbo declared during a postrace banquet. Tomorrow our work as competitors will begin. Based on the experience of the 1929 race, the authorities agreed to allow two years for the contenders to develop new aircraft. Once again, the 1931 race would be a duel between Britain and Italy, Supermarine and Macchi, Mitchell and Castoldi. And again it would be held in England, near Portsmouth.

With the backing of the Mussolini government, Balbo established a flying school, designated the Reparto Alta Velocita (High Speed Section), on Lake Garda in 1930. Its sole purpose was to put seven specially selected pilots through 18 months of training for the 1931 race. Castoldi designed his next entry around Zerbi’s new Fiat AS-6 V-12 engine — or rather, two of them coupled in tandem, generating a total of 2,800 hp — which could be raised to 3,100 hp for short spurts. The engines were connected by double reduction gears and concentric shafts to two contrarotating duralumin propellers. The arrangement eliminated the torque that had made takeoffs so hazardous in the past. Each of the engines was 11 feet long, weighed 2,083.7 pounds and had two Marelli magnetos per valve.

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