Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

--courtesy Balloon Federation of America

James Gordon Bennett, Jr.,
a steel engraving by F.T. Stuart
after a photograph.
Courtesy the
U.S. Naval Historical Center

The 2005 Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett was arguably the most successful in history. Not one, but four teams surpassed the previous “ultimate distance” record of 1,361 miles set in 1912. The ‘05 race was the first in history with a female Event Director – Pat Brake – and to use both helium and hydrogen. (See All Gassed Up! on page 20.) So how do you follow that? Fortunately history has provided part of the answer as 2006 is the Centennial Anniversary of the Cup and the 50th race. What? How can that be?

The Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett was founded in 1906 by the eccentric newspaper publisher and international sportsman James Gordon Bennett, Jr. It was the 3rd such international sporting event he funded following previous events in yachting and auto racing. A later cup for airplane racing was also created by Bennett.

However his sporting endeavors were not merely philanthropic. Bennett’s sponsoring of these highly popular events allowed his newspapers the inside story and exclusive interviews with the events participants. With these “scoops” he managed to drive subscriptions and sales of his New York Herald newspaper, a publication he had inherited from his father.

Likewise, not all of Bennett’s ventures involved the sporting world. It was the Herald that financed the much talked about 1869 expedition by British explorer Henry Morton Stanley into Africa to find David Livingstone. (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”) The New York Herald’s stories from the “Dark Continent” kept readers buying daily editions for more than two years.

Unfortunately not all such expeditions proved successful. Bennett’s Herald also funded the voyage of George W. DeLong through the Bering Strait to the North Pole. DeLong and 19 fellow crew members died of starvation, a tragedy that only increased the newspaper’s circulation.

Of all these entrepreneurial exploits it is perhaps ironic that the one that has lasted through the years to see a centennial anniversary is the ballooning cup. But history has challenged even the Coupe Aeronautique.

So how can you have a centennial anniversary with only a 50th race? War!
World War One interrupted the Cup briefly but it resumed in 1920. During World War Two the races were again suspended but this time the return of peacetime did not lead to an immediate resumption of competition. Why?

World War Two had focused tremendous technological development in air power. Speed and performance were the demands of the times. With peace came the Cold War with all of it’s political frostiness making an international race across European borders unlikely. Meanwhile aviation raced right along into the Jet Age and space leaving the memory of gas balloons far behind.

In 1983, several reasons led to the revival of the Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett. First, there was the exploding popularity of hot air ballooning. Second, there was the race to be first to cross the Atlantic by balloon, the first real long distance balloon “race” since the war. And third, history again played a role as 1983 was the Bicentennial of Ballooning reviving the story of the Montgolfier brothers and all that followed.
(Some will note there was a series of long distance “Gordon Bennett” gas balloon races held in the U.S. from 1979 through 1985. Those races have never been sanctioned by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale and thus are not included in the official history of the Cup.)

So what does the centennial year promise? No specific plans have been announced as yet, but that’s to be expected since many of the teams have barely returned home from Albuquerque. But as is the tradition of the Cup, that the winning team’s country earns the right to host the following race, the 50th Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett will be held in Belgium, September 7-16, 2006 subject to approval by the CIA in March.