Let Let Let – Warplanes

In 1923 the UK organized the event at Cowes on the Isle of Wright. A course of 37.2 km with tow turning points between Cowes harbour and Selsey on the British mainland had to be flown 8 times. This year, the Americans entered the race with a number of specially designed very fast and powerful floatplanes. Lt David Ritterhouse and Lt Rutledge Irvine scored very convincingly a first and second place with their Curtiss CR-3 racers that were some 36 km/h faster than Henry Biard who finished third with the good old Sea Lion racer! Only these three pilots managed to finish. The 1924 race was hosted by the U.S.A. at Baltimore where a triangular course was set out in the Chesapeake Bay. The US team was well-prepared with their Curtiss racers. However, both the UK and Italy were unable to use their racers that year, The Americans were sportive enough to postpone the race for the next year!

In 1925, the Baltimore race was convincingly won by Jimmy Doolittle in a Curtiss R3C racer. The UK pilot Hubert Broad finished second in his Gloster III racer while the Italian pilot de Briganti finished third and last. All other competitors retired or failed to meet the preliminary tests. In particular the UK was very unlucky with its new Supermarine S.4 racer when Henry Biard flew it at high speed in a shallow dive into the Chesapeake bay because of extreme flutter. He luckily survived the crash! The contest of 1926 was again hosted by the Americans. Location was also near the Chesapeake Bay, although it was a different course than that of the previous year. Start and finish was at Norfolk naval air base with a triangular course of 50 km over the Hampton Roads waters. The course had to be flown 7 times. It was a race between the Italians and the Americans; there were no entries from the U.K. this year! Winner was major Mario de Bernardi in his Fiat A.S.2 racer. Lt Frank Schilt and Lt Adriano Bacula finished second and third while Lt William Tomlinson finished as fourth and last in his Curtiss Hawk floatplane.

The 1927 contest was again hosted by the Italians in Venice. It was flown over a course of 50 km set out above the Adriatic Sea with start and finish in front of the excelsior Hotel on the Lido boulevard. The course had to be flown seven times. This time, it was an all-British affair with Flt. Webster and Flt. Worsley as first and second in their Supermarine S.5 racers. All other contestants had to retire during the race. Because of the ever increasing time and costs to develop and build the special racing planes, it was decided that from this year the Schneider Cup race was to be held every two year, instead of every year. With the UK as a host, the next race was held in 1929 near Calshot naval air base on the south coast of the UK. Here, a 30 km course had to be flown seven times. Start and finish was near the pier at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Flight officer Waghorn completely out-flew the Italian competition in his new Rolls Royce ‘R’ powered Supermarine S.6 racer with an average speed that was more than 70 km/h faster than Dal Molin in his Macchi M.59R. D’ Arcy Greig finished third in the Supermarine S.5. Flight officer Atcherly also succeeded to finish the race in the second S.6, but he was disqualified for cutting a pylon.

With two races won on a row, the UK needed a third victory to become the permanent owner of the Schneider Trophy. However, the 1931 races, to be organized again by the U.K. were far from certain since the Italians came the conclusion that their latest Macchi-Castoldi MC.72 racer would not be ready in time. Further, the RAF had withdrawn its financial support because ‘they saw no further need’ for financing these expensive seaplanes. At the last moment, a wealthy British widow, Lady Houston, decided to give sufficient financial support for further improvement of the Supermarine S.6 racer. With a further up-rated engine it was designated as the S.6B. There were no other competitors for the race of this year and that meant it had to be flown alone by the S.6B. Flt. Lt J.N. Boothman made this final flight to secure the trophy for the U.K. when he finished the 7 laps of the 50 km course with an average speed of 547 km/h.

The aircraft

Initially, only modified landplanes like the Sopwith Tabloid and the Deperdussin fitted with floats were used. Though the races were not held during the first world war years, aircraft development progressed very quickly during those years. At the first race after the war in 1919 we already see specially designed racing planes like the Savoia S.13 and Supermarine Sea Lion. In just a few years, we also see the development of these still quite cumbersome flying boats into aerodynamically refined and highly powerful floatplanes combining the smallest possible airframe with the most powerful engine. We also see that the average speed of the winning plane almost tripled from 189.7 km/h in 1921 to 547.3 km/h in 1931. The ‘big players’ in the Schneider Cup racers were Italy, the UK, the USA and initially also France. Oddly enough, Germany never played any role in this contest although Dornier designed during the twenties two times a special Schneider Cup racer. Both designs, however, never progressed any further that the drawing board! We will now shortly review a number of important and less important racing machines designed and built by the four most important participating countries. However, a number of them, in particular from France, were either never entered in the races or failed to qualify…….

The Italian racers

The Macchi M-7 flying boat was successfully entered in the 1921 race where it finished first. Even the next year, the M-7 managed to finish fourth! On the photo we see the improved M-7bis carrying racing number 10 during the 1922 race at Naples when it was flown by Piero Corgnolino. It was powered by a 260 hp Isotta-Frascini engine. In 1922, Cornoglino finished with an average speed of almost 200 km/h.

The Macchi M-19 was built specially for the 1921 Schneider Cup contest. It was powered by a 680 hp Fiat A-14 liquid-cooled engine driving a four-bladed tractor propeller. Although it had a much higher top speed than the winning Macchi M-7 of the 1921 race, the pilot Arturo Zanetti had to abort the race when his engine caught fire after a crankshaft failure. The neatly designed biplane flying boat was destroyed by fire after its emergency landing.

The Macchi M-19 was built specially for the 1921 Schneider Cup contest. It was powered by a 680 hp Fiat A-14 liquid-cooled engine driving a four-bladed tractor propeller. Although it had a much higher top speed than the winning Macchi M-7 of the 1921 race, the pilot Arturo Zanetti had to abort the race when his engine caught fire after a crankshaft failure. The neatly designed biplane flying boat was destroyed by fire after its emergency landing.

The M-17 was also a small flying boat specially built for the Schneider cup races. Two were built, fitted with a 260 hp Isotta-Frascini engine. The first one with racing no. 36 was destroyed during a landing but the second one entered the 1922 race in Venice where it finished third. It was flown by Arturo Zanetti at an average speed of 214 km/h carrying race numer 9 and the civil registration I-BAHG.

Related posts:

1. Tangmere Military Aviation Museum
2. Caudron C.460 Rafale replica presented at Le Bourget
3. Vickers Supermarine Type 381 Seagull ASR-1
4. Dutch flying boats and amphibians

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