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Gordon Bennett History Stories

GORDON BENNETT AND HIS RACES From the Book: Die Gordon Bennett Ballon Rennen (The Gordon Bennett Races) by Ulrich Hohmann Sr along with articles by others.

Many of his contemporaries have considered Mister James Gordon Bennett to be a spleeny American. He was born in New York, May 10th 1841 and died 4 days after his 77th Birthday in Beaulieu near Nizza/France. From his father, a Scottish journalist, he inherited the publishing house of the "New York Herald". Being a publisher makes somebody, even today, independent from money, but also requests a permanent struggle for increasing circulation.

Already in 1871, Gordon-Bennett proved his ability for "public relations", by sponsoring the expedition of Stanley, searching (and finding!) Livingstone, who was missing on his search for the source of the Nile. The later sponsorships of Gordon-Bennett therefore rooted more in his interest for business than in his interest for sports. The winners of ”his” competitions had to tell their adventures only to the reporters of the "New York Herald" as an exclusive story.

Today, we connect his name with the gas-ballooning. We don’t know, if he ever flew in a balloon. Already before 1900, he had donated 10.000 Francs to the Automobil-Club de France as price-money for a motor car race, and he developed the rules himself. This first race then took place on June 14th 1900 from Paris to Lyon. In 1905 he offered to the still young Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (F.A.I.) the rules, a one time 25.000 Franc donation and 12.500 Francs for each of the following two years "for the most courageous and experienced pilots of the world struggling for the Grand Prix of the Air".

The competition rules were (and are still today) quite simple: Winner is the nation of the team that covers the maximum distance. Every nation may enter three balloon as maximum and is obliged to host the race in the following year, if they win. If one nation wins this challenge-cup in three following years, the cup finally comes to its possession and this nation has to sponsor a new cup, if the race should continue. This was all laid down in the 23 chapters of the rules, so the COUPE AERONAUTIQUE "Gordon Bennett" was on its way and the spark was ignited for the most fascinating and adventurous competition in ballooning.

The following are stories from each year:

Race # Year Launch Location
    Beginning of the Gordon Bennett Tradition
1 1906 Paris, France
2 1907 St. Louis, USA
3 1908 Berlin, Germany
4 1909 Zurich, Switzerland
5 1910 St. Louis, Mo, USA
6 1911 Kansas City, USA
7 1912 Stuttgart, Germany
8 1913 Paris, France
  1914 - 1919 no events during World War I
    Interrupted by War the Race Flourishes  
9 1920 Birmingham, USA
10 1921 Brussels, Belgium
11 1922 Geneva, Switzerland
12 1923 Brussels, Belgium
13 1924 Brussels, Belgium
14 1925 Brussels, Belgium
15 1926 Antwerp, Belgium
16 1927 Detroit, USA
17 1928 Detroit, USA
18 1929 St. Louis, USA
    Difficult Decade But They Keep Flying
19 1930 Cleveland, USA
  1931 no event held
20 1932 Beale, Switzerland
21 1933 Chicago, USA
22 1934 Warsaw, Poland
23 1935 Warsaw, Poland
24 1936 Warsaw, Poland
25 1937 Brussels, Belgium
26 1938 Liege, Belgium
  1939 - 1982 no events held
    War But the Race Resumes After Many Years 
27 1983 Paris, France
28 1984 Zurich, Switzerland
29 1985 Geneva, Switzerland
30 1986 Salzburg, Austria
31 1987 Seefeld, Austria
32 1988 Bregenz, Austria
33 1989 Bregenz, Austria
    Flying Longer Distances
34 1990 Lech, Austria
35 1991 Lech, Austria
36 1992 Stuttgart, Germany
    1992 Article
37 1993 Albuquerque, USA
38 1994 Lech, Austria
39 1995 Wil, Switzerland
40 1996 Warstein, Germany
41 1997 Warstein, Germany
42 1998 Paris, France - Cancelled due to weather
43 1999 Albuquerque, USA
    GPS and Internet Tracking For All to See
44 2000 St. Hubert, Belgium
45 2001 Warstein, Germany
46 2002 Chatelerault, France
47 2003 Arc-et-Senans, France
48 2004 Thionville, France
49 2005 Albuquerque, USA
50 2006 Wassmunster, Belgium
51 2007 Brussels, Belgium - Cancelled due to weather
52 2008 Albuquerque, USA
53 2009 Geneva, Switzerland
     - Headquarters Operations Log
     - Balloon Federation of America 
   Gas Division Newsletter

 

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