The Pulitzer Air Races: American Aviation and Speed Supremacy, 1920-1925

ISBN-13: 9780786471003 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 248 str.

Michael Gough

Opis

Only three years after American raceplanes failed dismally in the most important air race of 1920, a French magazine lamented that American "pilots have broken the records which we, here in France, considered as our own for so long." The Pulitzer Trophy Air Races (1920 through 1925), endowed by his sons in memory of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, brought about this remarkable turnaround. Pulitzer winning speeds increased 60 percent from 157 to 249 mph, and Pulitzer racers, mounted on floats, twice won the most prestigious international air race--the Schneider Trophy Race for seaplanes. Airplanes, engines, propellers, and other equipment developed for the Pulitzers were sold domestically and internationally. More than a million spectators saw the Pulitzers; millions more read about them and watched them in newsreels. The Pulitzers ended when the Army and Navy, which financed all racers after 1921, bought no racers for 1926.