Video: Actual Footage From The 1935 National Air Races In Cleveland
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 08:32AM
This video tells some of the story of the 1935 National Air Races held in Cleveland Ohio where 65,000 people gathered to watch the daring men and their flying machines. I find it pretty amazing that there is quite a lot of actual film footage from this race this video! 1935 was an interesting year for the races as the designer of the aircraft that won the Bendix cross-country race (from Burbank California to Cleveland) as well as the two closed course races was the same man, Benny Howard. This was the first year for Howard's DGA-6 Mister Mulligan, the large 'cabin' airplane which had been specifically designed for the long distance race, and it was even flown by Benny on the eastward trek. By using oxygen and flying at a high altitude of 22,000 feet, the slower Mister Mulligan was able to beat Roscoe Turner and his faster single seat Wedell-Williams racer by making the long trip non-stop... and amazingly Mister Mulligan won that 8-1/2 hour race by only 23.5 seconds!
In the closed-course Thompson Trophy Race (the equivalent of the Unlimited Class of racing at Reno today), Harold Neumann flew the same Mister Mulligan and won when race leader Roscoe Turner had engine troubles. It was pretty amazing that the 'big' airplane had won both the long distance race and the closed course speed dash... tho Mister Mulligan definitely owes the Thompson win to Roscoe's unfortunate engine troubles. That big 4-place cabin airplane would normally never be true competition for a single seat racer like Roscoe's Wedell-Williams. But Benny Howard's big racer proved so successful overall that is became the basis for the Howard DGA commercial aircraft that became popular as an executive and rich-man's aircraft offering both speed and comfort in the late 30's and 40's.
The other race at the 1935 National Air Race was the Greve Trophy Race that limited engine displacement and typically featured smaller aircraft. Benny Howard's DGA-4 'Mike' was flown by Harold Neumann to victory giving Benny a sweep with his aircraft (and a race win as pilot to boot), and Harold Neumann two wins as pilot in two very different aircraft. An amazing year for these two men!
Harold Neumann went on to become a pilot for TWA. After 30 years, he retired in 1966 and then bought a 2-seat Monocoupe and painted it white to look like Mister Mulligan... he named it 'Little Mulligan' and was a regular at fly-ins and airshows with it thru the late 60's and into the 70's. My dad and I were fortunate to spend an afternoon with Harold at Fond du Lac airport in the early 70's while we were on our way home after Oshkosh. Harold was such a gentleman to be around, and I was pretty much in awe of the man that had been such a successful air racer way back in the mid 1930's!
I'm pretty sure I would have been happier if I had been born in 1910 and had been able to be right there in there middle of the Golden Age of Air Racing. Aviation was advancing so fast at that time, but there was also an element of passion and an amazing style that has never been equaled by our modern times. And as you can see in the video, there was a lot of class in these men as well... note how genuinely Roscoe Turner is congratulating Harold Neumann after Mister Mulligan had beaten Roscoe twice, in both the long and the short races. Classy people are awesome!
Hmm, maybe we need to stir up some replica air racing, Golden Age style! Wow, leather clad pilots, grass runways, perfectly styled aircraft and lots of noise and oil! I'm definitely gonna have to do some thinking on that idea : )
Screenshot showing Benny Howard's Mister Mulligan (right) and 'Mike' And 'Ike' (left)
Reader Comments (1)
A lot of familiar names and aircraft that year
1935 Bendix results
1 Howard & Israel Mister Mulligan
2 Roscoe Turner Wedell Williams
3 Russell Thaw Northrop Gamma
4 Roy Hunt Lockheed Orion
5 Amelia Earhart Lockheed Vega
-- Roy Leonard QED (DNF)
-- Earl Ortman Keith Ryder (DNF)
-- Cecil Allen Gee Bee R1/R2 (fatal crash)
1935 Greve results
1 Harold Neumann Howard "Mike"
2 Roger Don Rae Rider R-1
3 Art Chester Chester Jeep
4 Steve Wittman Chief Oshkosh
5 Marion Mc Keen Brown B-2
6 Lee Miles Miles & Atwood
7 David Elmendorf Wedell-Williams