Imagine stunt pilots and air racers whizzing through the sky at breakneck speeds for your entertainment. Throughout the 20^th century, and up to the present day, aerial showmen and women entertained millions in exactly that manner. Air shows, with their extreme stunts and dazzling speed contests, became a major entertainment during the early years of flight and remain popular today. For many spectators, air exhibitions are an exhilarating form of entertainment because they straddle the line between life and death.

Early exhibition aviators staged the first air shows beginning around 1910. Individual pilots and small groups of aviators got together and flew demonstrations to make a living, promote aviation, and entertain the masses. Eventually these aviators started competing to see who could perform the best stunts, and fly the highest, fastest, and farthest. By the start of World War I, air shows had become a popular international phenomenon.

Historically, spectators have attended air shows for many reasons. Above all, air shows are highly entertaining. While some people enjoy watching aviators fly a variety of stunts, others have found themselves drawn to the sheer speed of aircraft. Unfortunately, one of the most prevalent reasons air shows have been popular is the always-present chance that spectators might see a pilot killed. Patriotism and national pride have also helped draw people to air exhibitions, as people have enjoyed cheering for their own country's pilots.

The first major international air meet took place in Reims, France, in August 1909, and attracted close to 500,000 spectators. It set the precedent for all future air shows. Reims officials faced the challenge of converting the region's grape fields into a place that could accommodate the expected crowd, not to mention the pilots and their airplanes. To meet the challenge, they built special grandstands, a restaurant, a barbershop, and even press facilities.

Although Reims held several contests, including an altitude competition, an endurance race, and some stunt flying exhibitions, the main drawing card was the Gordon Bennett Cup Race, or speed contest. Being an international meet, the spectators rooted for their own nation's pilots. In the end, a handful of Americans cheered their countryman Glenn Curtiss to a six-second victory in the Gordon Bennett Cup. Overall, the race, and the entire Reims meet, was a huge success and helped establish air shows as a major spectator sport. A few months later, in January 1910, Los Angeles hosted the first American air show, drawing more than 175,000 people. Successful shows would follow within the year in New York and Boston.

At that same time promoters were staging the first international air shows, exhibition aviators were putting on their own demonstrations. Lincoln Beachey, the most inexhaustible daredevil of the early exhibition pilots, entertained more than 17 million people during a 31-week period in the 1910s. This is especially impressive when one considers that the entire U.S. population at the time was only around 76 million. Like all of the early exhibition aviators, Beachey was keenly aware that many people came to his show to see him flirt with death. Notably, at least one of Beachey's fellow fliers, Blanche Stuart Scott, who was the first woman to solo in an airplane, retired soon after she began performing because she was disgusted by the public's morbid interest in the death of aviators.

After World War I, during the "barnstorming" era, air shows changed significantly. In the past, spectators had usually gone to airfields to see an exhibition, but after the war, stunt pilots and wing walkers brought their shows to the people, even in the most remote areas. As a result, barnstorming became one of the era's most popular forms of entertainment. Essentially, when a barnstorming show toured a region, most towns in the area would shut down on the spur of the moment so that everyone could see the exhibition.

Barnstorming shows consisted of two main components and each contributed to the popularity of the phenomenon. One was the wide variety of death defying stunts that aviators performed; the second was that many loved the affordable joy rides that the aviators and aviatrixes offered. These joy rides became so popular during the 1920s that, in a single day, one pilot took some 980 passengers for rides. Because many people still had not seen an airplane up close by the early 1920s, barnstorming satisfied many people's curiosity about the new technology.

The U.S. National Air Races began in the mid-1920s and peaked during the Great Depression of the 1930s. At a time when many people were unemployed and destitute, the National Air Races proved extremely popular. Cleveland hosted most of the yearly contests, with Los Angeles staging the others. Thanks to extensive national media coverage, fans could learn about the contests from sources that included newspapers, newsreels, and the radio.

The National Air Races became extremely popular thanks to the efforts of promoter Clifford Henderson. Beginning with the 1929 show in Cleveland, Henderson staged ten solid days of entertainment ranging from daredevil stunts to high-speed races. The Air Races touted almost any aerial feat or contest a crowd could image. More than 600 aircraft were on display and at least 25 races contested. Overall, more than half a million people attended the 1929 show.

Speed was the main focus of these races. In 1930, Henderson introduced the Thompson Trophy Race, a closed-circuit free-for-all contest where competitors flew against each other around a pylon-marked course. Quickly, the Thompson became the most popular because of its sheer speed and excitement.

Like the early exhibition contests and barnstorming shows, the National Air Races saw their share of fatalities, but as aviation historian Terry Gwynn-Jones argues, that was precisely what the crowds wanted to see. As he notes, "The spectator's thirst for thrills and danger was unquenchable." With the Thompson Trophy Race in mind, Gwynn-Jones goes on to state: "The races had all the glitter and glamour of a Hollywood production, though some likened them more to a Roman forum with the frenzied crowd screaming at the spectacle as aerial gladiators dueled head-high around the pylons. And, as in Rome, many of the competitors died, their flaming fireball crashes adding a gory edge to the glamour." During the 1930 National Air Races, two pilots died in crashes. In subsequent years, the death toll would climb, especially in such controversial aircraft as the Gee Bees. Nevertheless, due to the fans' desire for speed, the pilots continued to push their limits and the limits of their aircraft.

After World War II, when airplanes were no longer a novelty (having become a major source of transportation), the demographics of air show spectators changed. Crowds were less socially and culturally diverse than they once had been. The majority of spectators now tended to be sport enthusiasts and military plane buffs.

During the post-war period, air shows sprang up worldwide. Many cities, aircraft societies, and military organizations began staging their own events. According to the International Council of Air Shows, as of July 2002, somewhere from 15 to 18 million spectators attend North American air shows annually. Demographically, the average spectator was 38 years old, college-educated, and possessed an annual household income of a least $35,000.

Significantly and not surprisingly, one of the most active promoters of modern air shows has been the military. Two of the most popular and famous military air show groups have been the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds. Both units are high-precision flight teams that perform breathtaking stunts at top speeds. Each entertains a vast number of people worldwide. The Blue Angels estimate that they perform before approximately 15 million spectators annually, while the Thunderbirds entertained more than 12 million people in 1997.

Modern air shows do not differ much from their historic predecessors. Although aircraft have gotten faster, spectators still go to see the basics, stunts, speed, and to watch pilots flirt with death. And, as Rob Reider, the announcer at the Dayton Air Show has noted, "Air shows are probably one of the last places where a person can be patriotic without feeling silly about themselves." Throughout the 20^th century, air shows were a constant source of entertainment, and there is every reason to believe that they will continue to remain so in the 21^st century.�

-David H. Onkst

Sources and further reading:

Addison, Colin. Oshkosh: The World's Biggest Aviation Event. London: Osprey, 1990.

Corn, Joseph J. The Winged Gospel: America's Romance with Aviation, 1900-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Gunston, Bill, ed. Chronicle of Aviation. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd., 1992.

Gwynn-Jones, Terry. The Air Racers: Aviation's Golden Era, 1909-1936. London: Pelham Books, 1983.

___________. Farther and Faster: Aviation's Adventuring Years, 1909-1939. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.

Handleman, Philip. The Book of Air Shows. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Aviation History, 1993.

Herbert, Frank. Threshold: The Blue Angels Experience: The Text and Full Color Photos from the Motion Picture. New York: Ballantine Book, 1973.

Hildebrandt, Erik. Front Row Center: Inside the Great American Air Show. Minneapolis, Minn.: Cleared Hot Media, 2000.

Hull, Robert. September Champions: The Story of America's Air Racing Pioneers. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1979.

Jessen, Gene Nora. The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The True Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Air Race. Naperville, Ill: Northam, 2002.

Marrero, Frank. Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky. San Francisco: Scottwall Associates, 1997.

McGuire, Jim. A Pictorial History of the Blue Angels: U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Teams, 1928-1981. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1981.

O'Neil, Paul. Barnstormers and Speed Kings. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1981.

Prendergast, Curtis. The First Aviators. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1980.

Rausa, Rosario and Roy M. Voris. The Blue Angels: An Illustrated History. Baton Rouge, La.: Moran Publishing Corporation, 1979.

Reinhardt, R., "Day of the Daredevil," American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Fall 1995, 10-21.

Sullivan, George. The Thunderbirds. New York: Dodd and Mead, 1986.

Wohl, Robert. A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908-1918. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994.

"About Air Shows." International Council of Air Shows. http://www.airshows.org/aboutairshows.htm

"Air Racing." Hickok Sports History. http://www.hickoksport.com/history/airrace.shtml

"Blanche Stuart Scott." National Air and Space Museum. http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/arch/findaids/bscott/bs_sec_3.html

"Blue Angle FAQ." U.S. Navy. http://www.navy.com/images/media/BlueAngelsFAQ.Pdf

Lienhard, John H. "The First Daredevil." University of Houston Engines of Our Ingenuity. http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1225.htm

"National Air Races." Cleveland National Air Show. http://www.clevelandairshow.com/natlairraces.htm

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"The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds History." U.S. Air Force. http://www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/historynoflash.htm

"The Vectren Dayton Air Show," Dayton Air Show. http://www.airshowdayton.com/

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