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Gordon Bennett Cup ballooning....
Gordon Bennett Cup ballooning....
Item # 583633
September 03, 1930
THE DAY, New London, Connecticut, September 3, 1930
* Gordon Bennett gas balloon race
* Ward Van Orman - Goodyear VIII
* Cleveland OH Ohio - ballooning
This 14 page newspaper has a three column headline on the front page: "Van Orman Balloon Winner; Belgian Pilot in Second Plane; Aide Jumps to Lighten Load" with subhead. Coverage of the 1930 Gordon Bennett Cup gas balloon race which started in Cleveland, Ohio for that year.
Other news, sports and advertisements of the day. A few tiny binding holes along the spine, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: The Gordon Bennett Cup is the world's oldest gas balloon race, and is "regarded as the premier event of world balloon racing" according to the Los Angeles Times. Referred to as the "Blue Ribbon" of aeronautics, the first race started from Paris, France on September 30, 1906. The event was sponsored by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the millionaire sportsman and owner of the New York Herald newspaper. According to the organizers, the aim of the contest "is simple: to fly the furthest distance from the launch site." The contest ran from 1906 to 1938, interrupted by World War I and in 1931, but was suspended in 1939 when the hosts, Poland, were invaded at the start of World War II. The event was not resurrected until 1979, when American Tom Heinsheimer, an atmospheric physicist, gained permission from the holders to host the trophy. The competition was not officially reinstated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) until 1983.
The record time for the winner of the event is held by Germans Wilhelm Eimers and Bernd Landsmann who remained airborne for over 92 hours in the 1995 race, taking off from Switzerland and landing four days later in Latvia. The distance record is held by the Belgian duo of Bob Berben and Benoît Siméons who, in 2005, piloted their balloon 3,400 kilometers (2,100 mi) from Albuquerque to Canada. The most successful pilot is Austrian Josef Starkbaum who won the trophy seven times between 1985 and 1993, while American teams have won on the most occasions, with twelve victories.
Category: The 20th Century
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