On Saturday September 5th, 16 aeronauts from Germany, Austria, Belgium, the United States, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will try to fly as far as possible in a gas balloon. In 1922 the Gordon Bennett race started near the gas factory of Châtelaine, as you can see on the photo above, published on Monday August 24th in the “Tribune de Genève”. In 1921 two Swiss pilots (Louis Ansermier and Paul Ambruster) had won the Coupe and consequently brought the competition to Geneva. Taking off in Brussels, they had managed to fly to the island Lambey in Ireland (766 km).

For those who want to visit the Rue de la Coupe Gordon Bennett: you can find it between the Chemin Isaac Anken and the Chemin de la Muraille!

From 1907 till 2007 the Coupe had always been organized by the country that had won the last edition of the race. Due to logistical and meteorological reasons the race couldn’t start in Belgium in 2007. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, seated in Lausanne (CH), then decided to modify the rules. The Gordon Bennett race 2008 would take place in Albuquerque, and the winner of the race had to organize the race in 2010.

But how about the 2009 edition? Interested nations could send in their applications. The candidates were Switzerland (Geneva), Germany (Stuttgart), Great Britain (London), the United States (Albuquerque) and Luxemburg (but they withdrew their application). And the winner was … Switzerland.

So this year Geneva will host the famous Coupe Gordon Bennett and will welcome the best gas ballooning pilots in the world from 4 till 6 September at the Sports Center of Vessy. It will be the fourth Gordon Bennett for Switserland (1909 Zurich,  1922 and 1985 Geneva).

It is quite spectacular and even moving to see the gas balloons float away accompanied by their national hymns and it will certainly attract many people from all over Europe.

To celebrate its 100^th anniversary the Aéro Club of Geneva will get up many other animations to accompany the start of the Coupe Gordon Bennett. All of this is possible thanks to the support of the Geneva Bureau of Tourism, the state, the town of Geneva, Skyguide, the Geneva International Airport and the Groupe Aérostatique de Geneva … but the organization still needs more sponsors to finance this marvelous project.

Without any doubt we are on the treshold of a beautiful new adventure !!!

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.