IMS Aviation Plans & National Attention 1909

The attached article from September 5, 1909, was published in the Indianapolis Star and shortly after the first auto race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This piece elaborates on one published about the track's plans for an air show in the same newspaper the previous day. It is a great encapsulation of some amazing - and rapid - progress that was being made in airplane technology development at the time.

Indianapolis civic leadership and citizens looked hopefully at the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to establish the city not just as a capital of automobile development but aviation as well. In truth, the track grounds were flat and spacious in a time before airports. Perhaps falling short of ideal, the facilities were adequate if just for a brief time in history to showcase early aircraft. There can be no doubt such efforts served to educate the public and inspire some among them to pursue careers in aviation.

Speedway President Carl Fisher, a licensed balloonist, was not just an advocate for the automotive and aviation industries but a proponent of emerging technology in general as well. A patriot, he took it upon himself to lead America into a race to develop these new industries. He saw his Speedway as the answer to European initiatives such as the Brooklands concrete-paved closed circuit race track and the August 1909 air show in Rheims, France. This was the first great air race in history and would serve as the gold standard for such endeavors for many years hence. It was here that Curtiss won the James Gordon Bennett Cup for aviation, recognized as the highest honor for such events.

The article remarks on the importance of the Rheims event and even more interesting is the notation that in just the span of a year the ability to sustain flight had expanded from a handful of minutes to about two hours. Noted as a milestone is an Orville Wright flight in September 1908 over the Fort Myer U.S. Army Base in Virginia that surpassed an hour. Despite the renowned 1903 first heavier-than-air flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wright the article contends that as late as 1905 no one had "demonstrated conclusively to the world that they had mastered the secret of flight."

Another historic point raised in the article is that prior to Orville's hour-long flight the previous world's best was Leon Delagrange's achievement of 15 minutes, 25 seconds over Rome, Italy on May 30, 1908. Other leaders of aviation at the time are mentioned including Louis Bleriot who was still only beginning his career and airplane business in 1908. He had just achieved weeks earlier to this report his crowning glory in being first to cross the English Channel in 1909.

The attached article from September 5, 1909, was published in the Indianapolis Star and shortly after the first auto race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This piece elaborates on one published about the track's plans for an air show in the same newspaper the day prior. It is a great encapsulation of some amazing - and rapid - progress that was being made in airplane technology development at the time.

Rheims star Glenn Curtiss was just venturing into aviation in 1908 and Henri Farman had won the Archdeacon prize, the first major aviation trophy. The award's sponsor, Ernest Archdeacon, was one of the founders of the Aero Club of France. The article does not mention it but one of his co-founders of the club was the legendary author and visionary Jules Verne. As for Archdeacon, he had ambitions for his country, France, as Fisher did for America. Both men created events and awards to spur on technological and product development.

The article notes a new generation of pilots and airplanes that were emerging at the time. Among the pilots mentioned are Louis Paulhan, Hubert Latham, Eugene Lefebvre, Roger Sommer (the article spells his name "Somner"). The leading makes of airplanes mentioned are Wright, Curtiss and Voisin - all bi-planes - and the two monoplanes from Bleriot and Antoinette.

The Voisin is called out for engine innovation with a seven cylinder Gnome rotary design. Credited to engineer Laurent Seguin the idea was to maintain horsepower output with reduced weight. A breakthrough feature of the configuration was to power the propeller directly from a drive shaft instead of translating the energy through a system of chains. The article also describes differences in the aerodynamic qualities of the wings and tail.

Again, the 1909 event never occurred but there was an aviation meet at the Speedway in June 1910.