However there are some inaccuracies:

I can find no contemporary accounts that state an Italian S51 crashed during the 1922 contest or any reference to the death of a pilot.

The cancellation of the 1928 contest was not in recognition of the death of Jacques Schneider but as a result of Balbo's proposal in December 1927 to try to get the contest made into a biennial one to allow more time to develop new machines for subsequent contests.

The author perpetuates the myth that the Merlin engine was developed from the Rolls-Royce 'R' engine, when the derivative engine was the Griffon.

Basically the Navy 1923 team were certain they had the fastest aircraft, it was only a question of which one would win, Irvine, Rittenhouse or my dad. As my father told it he, after the better part of a bottle of scotch, decided to wire back to the Wright factory and have them put a new engine on the block and run it at a couple of hundred RPM over the design limit. They did so and wired back that under no circumstances should the RPM limit be adjusted upward as the engine only last for a little over two hours (I'm not sure of the actual time but I do know that it was longer than the he would have to fly to win the race.)

With that information in hand he had a new engine installed with the increased RPM limit and waited for race day. However, as my father told he began to be concerned that he had not flown a practice run in some time and decided to give the aircraft a short test run. It turned out to be shorter than he had planned. My father said that all he could remember was rocker boxes and engine parts flying over his head and then he was in the water —- without a scratch. He estimated he was going well over 100 miles an hour when the engine blew– which only lasted for a few minutes.

Dad also crashed the Navy's entry for the next race during a first test flight. That's when the Navy dropped out and the US Army represented the US for the next race. (I have photos of the dad's aircraft before and after the initial test flight crash. Dad however went on to set a number of speed records for Class C seaplanes and was the first aviator to hook up to a dirigible. (long story there)

Years later I had the privilege of flying my dad in the back seat of a T-33 and landing faster than he would have had to fly to win the race!

On a side note, after I retired from the AF I ran the US office for Pilatus Britten Norman and spent many days at their factory in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight recalling the stories my dad told of the 1923 race. It's a small world getting smaller every day.

Great article. When I ask my fighter pilot buddies what was the fastest aircraft in the world in 1939 they can't believe it was aircraft dragging around big twin floats. I've won a few beers on that one.