GB2009 » Featured article

The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett

Luc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:44:38 +0000

The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett is the most prestigious event in aviation and the ultimate challenge for the balloon pilots and their equipment. The goal is simple: to fly the furthest distance from the launch site.

The international balloon competition was initiated by adventurer and newspaper tycoon Gordon Bennett in 1906, when 16 balloons launched from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France. Little did the crowd of 200,000 spectators know that this race was to continue throughout the 20th century.

This FAI site (http://www.coupegordonbennett.org) is dedicated to the courageous men and women who have and continue to challenge the skies in this incredible event. Within these pages is the history of this great event, from a list of all race participants and winners to the narrative supplied from a book by Ulrich Hohmann of Germany. Please feel free to read this material, use it for educational event promotional purposes but please respect the copyrights associated with this material for publication and distribution.

It is a story full of adventure, skill, courage survival and luck.

It is the story of the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett.

Tags: gordon bennett, History, Race, ultimate challenge

The first Gordon Bennett Race 1906

Luc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:59:53 +0000

Start: Paris, Jardin des Tuleries, September 30th, 4 p.m.

In Paris, public interest for the first Gordon-Bennett-Race was great. About 250.000 spectators may have been on the launch-field. Also among the aeronauts of the different countries, this new competition caught a lot of interest. Seven different nations entered balloons and with tension everybody waited for the launch of this new-developed competition. The only aeronauts in those days were balloon-pilots.
Exactly 2 1/2 week before this launch, a Danish inventor named Jakob Ellehammer performed the first European fixed-wing-motor-flight, but with his home-made construction he covered only 42 meters at an altitude of 3 to 4 meters.

The order for take-off was defined by article 12 of the rules, by a drawing. At first the Italian balloon “ELFE” took off, the others followed in the drawn series within a period of a few minutes between them. Number 12 was the American Frank P. Lahm.

The most applause was gathered by Santos Dumont, flying for the USA. This eccentric and elegant pioneer of aviation had developed 14 aircraft in the years before, mostly one person mini-airships. At this race, he flew with a 6 h.p. motor in the basket of the “DEUX AMERIQUES”. The flight ended painful for him. After covering 134 km, his jacket was caught in the propeller and his arm was hurt. He landed at Evreaux, and his balloon escaped, when he went out looking for a doctor in the night. This was the first and the last effort ever, to try to win this race by a motor-driven balloon. The injuries may not have been too severe, for 1 1/2 month later, on November 12th, Alberto Santos-Dumont managed to make some good flights in Brazil with his self-developed biplane (For his best performance he flew 70 meters in 21 seconds).

Let’s go back to the race: The wind came from southeast and drove the balloons to the channel, urging the pilots to make the decision to land, or to risk the dangerous jump across the water in the hope, to reach the English coast. 16 balloons have launched, 7 left the continent and landed safe in England.

The first Gordon-Bennett-winners became the Americans Lt. Frank P. Lahm with his co-pilot Major Hersey in the balloon “UNITED STATES”, a coal-gas balloon of 2080 m³. They landed after 22 hours and 15 minutes in Fyling-Dales, Yorkshire-county in north-England, directly in front of the North-Sea-coast. The balloon, that took off first, “ELFE” (1850 m³), with Alfred Vonwiller and Lt. Ettore Cianetti came in second with only 54 kilometres back and a landing close to the town named Hull.

Among the others, Mr. Charles Rolls (”Rolls Royce”) created excitement. He got lost. After he landed south of Hull in the night, he found no open telegraph-office, to sent his landing-report, and in his hurry, to travel back to London, he and his co-pilot totally forgot to report. Something else happened already in those times: A very angry English farmer sent a telegram to the FAI, complaining that the trace of a trail-rope of an unidentifiable balloon had spoiled his meadow. But in general, comments from the citizens were positive: The Lord of Flyingdale, on which properties the winner landed, commented: “An earthquake will not raise more attention than a landing of a balloon”.

Let’s now have a look to the winner of this first competition: Frank P. Lahm, Lieutenant in the signal-corps of the US-army, born November 17th 1877 in Mansfield (Ohio). Lahm joined Westpoint military academy in June 1897, and was promoted Lieutenant of cavalry in the year 1901. He took part in the Philippine-war for two years and became teacher at Westpoint in 1903. From there, for further education he was commanded to attend the riding-school of Saumur (France) and later ordered to develop an air-force for the United States. Until the Gordon-Bennett-Race 1906 he had only done 14 flights in a balloon.

After his victory he was interviewed by the reporters of the New-York-Herald, and here is the report, that was printed in this paper on October 3rd 1906.

Notes from the log-book of the UNITED STATES:

04:55 p.m.	Depart
11:17 p.m.	Reached the sea near Caen
02:35 a.m.	Flashlight in the north
03:10 a.m.	Lights of the English coast in sight
03:30 a.m.	Reached the coast at the Isle of Wright
10:30 a.m.	Over flown Nottingham
03:10 p.m.	Landing one mile from the sea at Flying-Dales (Yorkshire) near Whitby, strong wind at the landing.

In the United States there was much cheering about this victory, especially among the members of the American aero club. But now the representatives of this club had to face big problems: they had to host the next race. Their organization was quite young, and only two pilots in the whole country held the required international licences and had some experience. (Santos Dumont had flown for the USA, but he was a Brazilian citizen). How could this end up well?

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Tags: History, Race

Above the Clouds

Luc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:50:18 +0000

Perhaps the most thrilling of all aeronautic sports is free ballooning. The feeling one has, as the earth rapidly drops away from the ascending balloon, is one that cannot be described in words. The earth becomes a map; cities appear as in Toyland, men as mere specs, and farm-lands as a checker board—each field a different color with just enough woodland to break up the monotony. Here and there a silvery thread winds its way tirelessly toward the sea. Now and then a thin, slowly moving stream of white—a second look we see the cause, an express train steaming rapidly along. Such beauty, such a free bird-like feeling, such calm and quiet!

The extreme quiet that is encountered in a free balloon is beyond imagination. Hardly a sound is heard, no humdrum of the city, no moaning of the wind in the trees of the woodland, no sound of birds or bees; not a breath of air stirring to create sound, for regardless of the velocity of the wind, the balloon drifts along with it at exactly the same speed, so it seems as though no wind is blowing. If you are far out of reach of the sounds of the busy earth, the extreme silence everywhere is impressive.

A large, dark, moving area appears on the earth below. What is it? It is the shadow of a cloud. Slowly overtaking it is a tiny round shadow. Suddenly we find ourselves hidden from the sun, and notice the little round shadow has disappeared. It was the shadow of our balloon.

A look upward—the clouds—a great fleecy mass of gray. The pilot orders “one bag of ballast over” and the aircraft rises as if by magic.

You look about; a fog is forming. No! You are entering a cloud. To your surprise a cloud is nothing more than fog. Soon you are lost to sight from the earth. The air seems cooler and somewhat damp. To right and left, above and below, all is milky white. Often even the gas bag is hidden from sight. You have a feeling of being lost, of complete helplessness. You do not know how fast you are traveling or even in what direction, and furthermore, there is no known instruments to give you this information when in a cloud and out of sight of the earth.

After a while the light becomes brighter, the mist breaks above and you enter the bright sunlight. I say “bright” with emphasis because the lack of impurities at that height, intensified by reflection from the pure white surface of the clouds below, brings forth an infinite expanse of dazzling brightness incomparable with anything ever before seen. Such a spectacle—huge billowy masses, like foam on the ocean waves, like snow capped mountains range upon range, all of the purest white, untainted by the dust and smoke of the busy earth below.

Onward you sail,, now a low place shaded in beautiful contrast with the white masses; now a smaller fleecy cloud apart from the rest, seeming to have strayed away; now a hole in the clouds and again we see old Mother Earth. Its roads appear as lines of yellow, its rivers like threads of silver, and were it not for the trees and fenced-in yards, farm houses would scarcely be visible. This infinite expanse of space arrayed in all its glory can never be appreciated from descriptions—one must actually go through the experience.

At last we pull the valve cord for a few seconds and start our downward journey. We leave the clouds above, and the humdrum of the earth is faintly heard, with train whistles and auto horns. Now voices become audible and people can be seen running ahead and other standing gazing at the balloon. The end of the drag rope strikes, and the basket quivers as the rope whirrs along over the uneven ground. The earth comes up rapidly—we bump and bounce up ten or twenty feet. “Grab the drag rope” shouts our pilot to the group of breathless men and boys running after the balloon. They get hold, slow us down, and we settle to the ground with scarcely a jar. Thus comes to a close a most fascinating, thrilling and inspiring ride.

By C.H. Roth

Tags: free balloon, Gas Balloon, Race

Fête de l’Air

Luc — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:09 +0000

Tags: gordon bennett

GB2009 » Featured article

The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett

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