Just months that followed the Wright brothers first powered flight, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor
Company which put the world on wheels, but what many people don’t know, is he did much the same
thing with Aviation with the Ford Tri-Motor and the World’s first concrete airport hotel in the world. Many may not know that the city is also home to many aviation milestones serving as the birthplace and hometown of aviator Charles Lindbergh and the primary location for the mass production of B-24 bombers during World War II. But
prior to the Ford’s commercialization of Aviation, Air Racing has been part of the scene almost as long as
airplanes have been flying!
The air racing trophy contests of the 1920s and 1930s produced arguably the most exciting competitions
in aviation history and contributed significantly to the advancement of aeronautics. From the end of
World War I to the beginning of World War II--a period known as the "Golden Age of Air Racing"--
thousands of spectators flocked to the era's four major trophy races and watched several record-breaking
performances.
To be the fastest, radical new technologies were developed in aerodynamics, airframe and power plant
designs.! It is the simplest form of aerial competition, and it’s the world’s fastest motor sport in which the
best racers whip around at double the speed of the fastest race cars. Detroit’s pioneering history in
Aviation can be traced back to 1907 and to Lt. Thomas Etholen Selfridge, also the namesake of Selfridge
Airforce Base in Mt. Clemens, MI.
Selfridge Field
The mud flats bordering Lake St. Clair have been on the cutting edge of history since start of a crude
landing field early in this century. Named after Lt. Thomas Etholen Selfridge, the field has hosted nearly
every important figure in aviation history and played a front line role in America's air defenses, also
known as America’s #1 hornet’s nest.
Selfridge took his first flight in 1907 on Alexander Graham Bell's tetrahedral kite, a strange structure
made up of 3,393 winged cells. It took him 168 feet in the air and flew for an amazing seven minutes. He
also flew a craft built by a Canadian engineer, F.W.Baldwin, which soared three feet off the ground for
about 100 feet.
Lt. Selfridge seemed destined to become the nation's leading military aeronautical engineer. But on Sept.
17, 1908, at Ft. Myer, Va., he became the nation's first soldier to die in a plane crash when he flew with
Orville Wright.Rescuers rush to the aid of Wright and Selfdrige after the plane nosedived to earth.
Selfdrige died of a skull fracture later that day.
The Curtiss Marine Trophy Race
On October 8th, 1922 the Curtiss Marine Flying Trophy Race for seaplanes was held in Detroit. Eight of
ten of the fastest aircraft of the time constructed to fight off aerial bombing attacks on American
battleships entered. Navy and Marine aviators raced eight laps of a 20 mile course from Belle Isle into
Lake St. Clair. Lt. A.W. Gorton won the race flying a Tr-1 that averaged 112.6 miles per hour over the
160 mile course. The race was not so much a speed event as a contest demanding good piloting. One o
the difficult maneuvers required that at the end of the fifth, sixth and seventh laps each pilot would land
and “taxi” over a 1,200-foot stretch before making a hairpin turn and again taking the air.
Mitchell Trophy Air Races
In the interest of seeing the skills of American military aviators developed to the fullest, Billy Mitchell
established the Mitchell Trophy Air Race in 1922. The Mitchell Trophy was named in honor of the
general's younger brother, John L. Mitchell, who had lost his life while serving with the 1st Pursuit Group
in France during World War I. General Mitchell donated the air race trophy in his brother's memory. Race
participants were drawn exclusively from among the members of the 1st Pursuit Group, and the inaugural
race was held at the Group's home, Selfridge Field, in the autumn of that year.
The first race was but one event in the National Air Races held at Selfridge that year. Other classic
contests held annually during this golden age of air racing included the Pulitzer, Curtiss and Boeing races.
Mitchell competitors flew five laps around a 20-mile course marked by pylons, but pilots might as easily
have followed the line of spectators' automobiles which ringed the circuit. For several years after the first
competition, the Mitchell Trophy Race was held at various airfields around the country, wherever the
other major trophy contests were being held. In 1930, the Mitchell Race returned to Selfridge, where it
would remain through the last race in 1936. The last Mitchell race was held in 1936, coincidentally the
same year in which General Mitchell died.
The Pulitzer Trophy
Air Race
The Pulitzer Trophy Air Race was the first purely American series of pylon races, sponsored by the
Pulitzer brothers, owners of major newspapers.! The first race was held at Mitchell Field, Garden City,
Long Island, New York, for four laps of a 29-mile course.! Thirty-eight pilots entered and took off
individually,!Most pilots flew American-built Army deH.4 World War I single-engined bombers, along
with Navy Vought VE-7’s and SE5A’s.! Only a few pilots were civilians. However, the Pulitzer series of
races brought the winning average speed up from 156 mph in 1920 to 248 mph in 1925. These Pulitzer
races produced several other beneficial technological developments, but also perpetuated the mistaken
belief that the biplane configuration had more potential for high speed than the monoplane. This belief
may have put America as much as 5 years behind Europe in the development of the monoplane.
The Pulitzer Trophy race was ten times around a closed circuit of 25.77 miles that started at Selfridge
thence south to Gaukler Point just east of Saint Clair Shores, then east to a barge with a tethered kite
balloon controlled by the USS Dubuque anchored in Lake St. Clair, then back to Selfridge. On October
14th, 1922, 1lt Russell Maughan from the first Pursuit Group at Selfridge, flew the 257.7 mile long race at
an average speed of 229 miles per hour and won the race. This race established Curtiss’ reputation as a
designer/builder of advanced airplanes.
Partners
Detroit Air Racing Inc. All Rights Reserved 2008 | *Detroit Air Racing, Inc. is a Hospitality Ticketing Agent and not the producer of the Red Bull Air Race in Detroit.
