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.

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.

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For further reading: History of Aviation, by W.R. Taylor and Kenneth Munson; Encyclopedia of Aviation (Scribner’s), and The International Encyclopedia of Aviation, edited by David Mondey.

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