airracing

1929 Texaco Racer set world record in flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Curtiss-Wright Travel Air R

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Maughan

Richard Norton: Thanks for providing more information about this person.

Russell Maughan is standing beside a Curtiss R-6 Racer (US Army Air Service Serial No. AS 68564, McCook Field number P-278). The particular aircraft in the photo would win (with Lt. Maughan at the controls) the Pulitzer Trophy during the 1922 National Air Races held at Selfridge Field, Michigan. The following year, Lt. Maughan would set a new international speed record of 236.5 mph flying the very same aircraft. This R-6 would be destroyed in a fatal air crash at the National Air Races at Wilbur Wright Field (present day Wright Patterson AFB) on October 4, 1924, killing pilot Capt. Burt E. Skeel. Reports state the wings broke away from the aircraft while Skeel was flying at a height of approximately 2,000-ft, sending the aircraft into a dive into the ground at a speed in excess of 285 mph.

TVL1970: Thanks for identifying the type of airplane depicted in this photograph.

The London to Melbourne MacRobertson Centenary Air Race was held in late October 1934...it was won by English aviators Charles Scott and Tom Campbell Black...flying a de Havilland DH.88 Comet (G-ACSS), named 'Grosvenor House'...they departed from Mildenhall aerodrome, near London, on 20th October...and arrived in Melbourne on 23rd October...in a time of 2 days, 23hrs. In the process, when they landed at Darwin, they lowered the England-Australia record to an incredible 2 days 4hrs 33min...which became a longstanding record for a piston driven aircraft. From Melbourne, Scott and Black later came to Sydney for a round of official engagements and congratulations...they arrived in Sydney by train on 12th November...their aircraft was transported from Melbourne to Sydney by ship and put on display for a week or so... Charles Scott, the senior pilot, was of course no stranger to Australia. In the later 1920s and early 1930s, he'd clocked up thousands of hours flying for Qantas, much of it in remote Northern Australia. Then, in the early 1930s he also made 3 record breaking solo flights between England and Australia...in April 1931 (England-Australia)...in May-June 1931 (Australia-England)...in April 1932 (England-Australia). Like many of the pioneering aviators, Scott was something of a romantic/tragic figure...but regardless, he certainly had a life. trove.nla.gov.au/work/184209253 - NLA Fairfax pic of Charles Scott checking a map with Amy Johnson, taken at Darwin in May 1930. trove.nla.gov.au/work/188066911 - NLA Fairfax pic of Charles Scott chatting with Charles Kingsford Smith at Mascot in April 1931, after Scott had beaten Kingsford Smith's England-Australia record.

covid convict 👍