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History of the National Air Races
(Continued from page 41)

The Pulitzer Trophy Race in 1923 was as usual attended by sensational thrills. The Navy, still smarting from its complete defeat at the hands of the Army in the Detroit meet, had prepared fully for the 1923 races by building four new racers. The Army used the same planes as in the previous year. Lieut. A. J. (Al) Williams of the Navy piloted his Curtiss R2-C1 racer four times around the course at an average speed of 243.68 miles per hour, winning the trophy. Lieutenant Brow of the Navy was second with 241.77 miles per hour, and Lieut. L. H. Sanderson, U. S. M. C., third with an average speed of 230.06 miles per hour. It is significant to note that the winning speed in 1923 was almost 90 miles per hour greater than that of the first Pulitzer race three years before.

Wright Attends Races
On historic field in Dayton, Ohio, where the Wright brothers made their early successful flights, the 1924 National Air Races were held, October 2, 3 and 4. Thousands of spectators witnessed a series of contests leading up to the climatic Pulitzer race, which well depicted the remarkable progress of aviation within only a few years' times. One of the most interesting spectators was Orville Wright himself, who served as chairman of the timers' committee.

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The National Air Races today. A mammoth international project. Scene at the 1929 event in Cleveland.

Official representatives from seven nations, the six celebrated Army aviators who had just encircled the world, and the leading men of the Army and Navy Air  Services were in the stands. A spectacular aerial carnival was staged by Army pilots, assisted by the noted Langley Field bombers, the same planes that destroyed the Ostfriedland off Cape Hatteras. "Casey" Jones again won the feature derby, flying his famous Curtiss Oriole. This airman also won the Central Labor Union Trophy Race in the same plane, with an average speed of 125 miles per hour.

Interest in the Pulitzer Trophy, however, began to wane in 1924, when the Navy did not enter a single ship. Lieut. H. H. Mills in a Verville Sperry won the trophy with an average speed of 215.72 miles per hour.

Mitchell Field, New York, was the scene of the 1925 National Air Races, in which all of the previous year's records for the same trophies except two were shattered. Several new types of military planes were developed for the meet; and new commercial planes, including the Bellanca with the Whirlwind engine, were first demonstrated. Foreign competition appeared for the first time when France sent over two Breguet observation planes for active competition. Both the Army and the Navy sent lone representatives to compete for the Pulitzer prize. Lieut. Cyrus Bettis of the Army won the race with an average speed of 248.98 miles per hour, bettering by more than five miles an hour the record of Lieutenant Bettis with a speed of 241.7 miles per hour. Both pilots flew Curtiss R3-C1 racers.

A specially built plane with an OX-5 motor, flown by Kenneth W. Montee of Santa Monica, California, won the "On-to-New York" cross-country derby. The Merchants Association Trophy was won by "Casey" Jones in his Curtiss Oriole at a speed of 134.2 miles per hour. Basil L. Rowe won the free-for-all Glenn Curtiss trophy by averaging 102.9 miles per hour with his Thomas-Morse scout over a 12-mile triangular course. The Liberty Engine-Builders' Race was won by Captain Lemaitre of France, who flew his Breguet observation plane at 129.1 miles per hour.

Races Are Established
By 1926, the annual air classic was definitely established. In this year the National Air Races were haled at Model Flying Field in Philadelphia, in conjunction with the exposition then in progress at that city. Higher speeds and better visibility for the spectators made these races more spectacular than any of the previous years. The total distance for civilian plane events was changed to five and six laps of the 12-mile course to avoid long races which had at times proved tiresome for spectators. Nineteen events and 215 entries featured the races in 1926, and a number of stunt exhibitions enlivened the meet.

Aviation's remarkable advances were vividly illustrated in several innovations at the Philadelphia races. For the first time in air race history the substitution of a new engine was made in a plane so that it could compete in another event. Only thirty-one minutes were required to change engines in a Pitcairn plane. For the first time also crowds in the grandstand heard music broadcast from a Sikorsky plane flying over the field. The use of air-cooled motors in modern pursuit ships was noted as marking the return of this type of engine to wide use. Although the Pulitzer trophy was no longer competed for, the free-for-all pursuit race was a worthy successor. Lieut. G. T. Cuddihy of the Navy won this race with a Packard-Boeing pursuit plane, averaging 180.015 miles per hour. One of the most informative events in the 1926 races was for transport planes carrying a minimum pay load of 1,000 pounds. This race was won by C. C. Champion, both for speed and for efficiency. He flew his Wright-Bellanca-Whirlwind at an average speed of 121.531 miles per hour. James G. Ray, flying a Sesqui-Wing, outsped "Casey" Jones' Oriole to win the Aviation Town and Country Club race at an average speed of 136.37 miles per hour. A novelty race was held in which pilots carried passengers who were

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