CHAPTER III

THE NATIONAL AIRPLANE RACES AT DETROIT FOR THE

I

PULITZER AND OTHER TROPHIES-HOW UNITED STATES WON WORLD RECORDS

N ALL forms of transport, competition in performance, either for efficiency or speed, has been an incentive and a means to progress. The World War, through military necessity, forced an extraordinary development in aeronautics. In time of peace, wartime or service conditions must be simulated if similar development is to be achieved. The passing of the international air classic-the James Gordon Bennett Cup Race-offered a new opportunity for American foresight and generosity which was quickly utilized by the Messrs. Pulitzer, publishers of the New York World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to offer the Pulitzer Trophy as a means of further encouraging speed-the outstanding service which aircraft offer.

The first two contests for the Pulitzer Prize, Garden City, 1920, and Omaha, 1921, were interesting mainly as indicating the efforts which American aviation, lacking genuine public support, was making to live up to its birth-right. It was not until 1922 that the consciousness of the country awakened sufficiently to appreciate somewhat the international significance of the air and wherein the United States was lacking. Whereas, European and Asiatic powers, on the close of the World War, for reasons of commercial welfare and national security had set into operation policies deliberately calculated to encourage aviation, the United States, busied with other matters, had neglected to take many of the obvious primary steps.

Brigadier General William Mitchell, Assistant Chief of Air Service, spent the early months of 1922 in intensive study of European conditions. The report which he laid before his Chief, Major General Mason M. Patrick, led to discussions between General Patrick and Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, and subsequently to conferences between the Secretaries of War and Navy. As a result it was determined that American manufacturers and designers should be invited to compete in the design and construction of new types of craft.

Major General Mason M. Patrick, Chief, U.S. Air Service; Brigadier General William Mitchell, Assistant Chief of Air Service at Detroit meet.-Official Photo, U. S. Army Air Service.

Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett, Chief, Naval Bureau of Aeronautics, and Henry Ford, at Detroit Meet.-Official Photo,

U. S. Navy.

CALL FOR PLANES AND ENGINES

The Air Service thereupon requested the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation of Garden City, L. I.; Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation, New York City; Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Co., Inc., Farmingdale, L. I.; and the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation, Ithaca, N. Y., to lay out pursuit planes. The engineers were permitted a free hand—a privilege thus offered for the first time in the history of the industry-the only restriction, or guidance, being that the planes must be of a design suitable for military work and must have a speed of more than 190 miles an hour, or approximately 30 to 35 miles an hour faster than the most advanced type in use in the air services.

At the same time, the Navy Department authorized Messrs. Booth and Thurston of Hammondsport, N. Y., the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation, the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation and the Wright Aeronautical Corporation of Paterson, N. J., to undertake the development of specialized types or the adaptation of existing types, with the predetermined object of attaining speed and maneuverability applicable to duty on ship or shore.

The requirements laid before the engineers were severe. At no time, under peace conditions, had this newest of industries been called upon to conceive, calculate, and construct flying machines of guaranteed performance within a period of four months or so from the time the contracts were signed. But the engineers were not apprehensive. First came their selection of power plant. The Curtiss Company used the D-12 400 h.p. engine of their own design. The Loening and Thomas-Morse Corporations chose the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Mich., which, since its contributions to the Liberty motor, had consistently devoted a portion of its automobile earnings to the development of airplane engines. The Sperry Company, which was charged with the engineering and production of a design by A. R. Verville, an Army Air Service engineer, effected immediate liaison with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, builders of the Wright engine, the standard power unit for hundreds of service planes called upon for consistent, heavy duty, within average speed ranges, at various flying fields throughout the United States.

Messrs. Booth and Thurston also selected the Wright motor as did the Navy Department itself, whose designers, in close collaboration with the plane and motor engineers of the Wright corporation, created around an entirely new 600 horse power Wright motor a ship of unique design and of impressive subsequent performance.