Blue Ribbon of the Air: The Gordon Bennett Races

xv, 272 pp. Of the various early contests, the most influential by far was the annual race for the Gordon Bennett Cup, indisputably the most exacting, most exciting aerial event of its day, universally acclaimed as the Blue Ribbon of the Air. The mystique of the Gordon Bennett lay not in the ability of an airman to ascend higher, stay up longer, or travel farther, but to fly faster than anyone else. ...brings together for the first time detailed descriptions of each of the six races of this classic series and biographical sketches of every participant.--jacket