Less than 20 days to Air Racing's 100th birthday!

[Anders]

You often read that the 28 August 1909 Gordon Bennett Trophy was the first air race. This is not true, there was actually an entire season of airracing in 1909, and there were several smaller events before.

The world's first air race was held on 23 May 1909 at Port-Aviation, south of Paris. Four pilots entered. Léon Delagrange, flying a Voisin, did not complete the course, but was declared the winner.

Read more about the roots of air racing at the Record & Racing Aircraft Special Interest Group website! We will be making some articles from our newsletter Bent Throttles available as part of the celebrations.

Anders

[Wingnut]

Re: Less than 20 days to Air Racing's 100th birthday!

Admittedly I usually take little notice of RARA's annual theme for the races but I was surprised and disappointed that this year's event seems to ignore the centennial of air racing. Maybe I'm alone in my thinking but I feel that a great opportunity to acknowledge the colorful history of the sport is being lost.

-Jeff

[MMPerk]

Re: Less than 20 days to Air Racing's 100th birthday!

You are not alone in your thinking. But I'm no historian and had no clue about this date myself.

Give them a call and see what they say about it. RARA has been pretty straight forward about answering any questions that I've asked.

LP