Airplane Racing: A History, 1909-2008

This is the history of air racing from its beginnings in 1909 at Reims, France, to the end of the 2008 racing season at Reno, Nevada. The history of air racing is very much the history of aviation, with glamorous pilots, some of military fame (e.g., Jimmy Doolittle) and builders (e.g., Glenn Curtiss), machines that captivated the national imagination, and many relatively unknown tinkerers and designers. This book follows air racing from pre-World War I European races, through the interwar years when popular air races stimulated military design, and the booms and struggles of the postwar years before racing found a permanent home in the Nevada desert.