1937 National Air Races By Bill

1937; The National Air Races were once more back in Cleveland.
The world class fair, called "The Great Lakes Exposition" was in
its second and final year here at Cleveland's lake front, attracting
thousands of people from all over the globe. Thompson Products
saw an opportunity to promote the National Air Races during this
event and commissioned Walter Sinz to build two 10 ft. replicas of
the Thompson Trophy. One replica was on display at the Thompson
Products booth at the Exposition and the second was on display in
downtown Cleveland. They were than moved to the grandstand
area for the race. Both replica's are currently on display at the
Crawford Auto Aviation Museum in Cleveland. The total prize money
available for the races was $82,000 the highest to date. Attendance
also set new records, while the first three days did not set any records,
Monday, Labor Day sure did. Crowd's inside and outside the fence
were estimated at well over 200,000.

The 1936 National Air Races were held in Los Angeles due to the
Cleveland Airport expansion program. In 1937 Cleveland Municipal
Airport was now the largest airport in the world, measuring 1040 acres.
The grandstands had to be rebuilt 1,000 feet back and 10,000 seats
were added. The parking lot had room for 30,000 cars. There were still
no runways, only a large "landing mat" as airport Commissioner Jack
Berry believed it was the best way to operate a landing field.
The Landing mat was the largest paved surface in the world at the time.

1937 Official Program
(Steve Zatroch collection)

(Bill Meixner collection )
Hangar line

It was back to Burbank CA for the start of the Bendix cross-country Race. Total
prize money was $25,000. while the largest field ever in the history of the Bendix
was entered, only eight planes started to line up before dawn. A early model
Beechcraft Stagger-wing formerly owned by Howard Hughes and piloted by
Bob Perlick started down the runway, but before lift-off the left landing gear
collapsed damaging the aircraft. The other's all were off but Joe Mackey, flying
Turner's Wedell-Williams was out at St. Louis with oil problems. Frank Fuller,
owner of Fuller Paint won the race in a brand new Seversky P-35, (civilian version).
Fuller flew over the finish line and went on to Floyd Bennett Field to set a new
cross-country record. Earl Ortman was second in a Keith Rider R-3 renamed
Marcoux-Bromberg for its new owner. Ortman ran into rough weather west of
Chicago, attempting to climb "over" the weather, blacked-out due to lack of oxygen.
When Ortman woke up his plane was circling over a body of water which he later
discovered was Lake Michigan and went on to Cleveland. Jacqueline Cochran
was next (third place) in Beechcraft Staggerwing. Frank Sinclair, a Seversky test
pilot came in forth in another P-35. A twin engine Lockheed Electra fished fifth,
flown by aerobatic pilot, Milo Burcham. Sixth and last place was a home built metal
cabin plane flown by builder/owner, Eiler Sundorph. When Sundorph spotted the
Cleveland airport he dove the plane for the finish line, as he crossed the line the
aircraft developed an aileron flutter and he pulled up quickly giving the spectators a
thrill. Roscoe Turner's new plane was unable to start due to a welding explosion in
Burbank. Alex Papana and his special built 3-engine Bellanca also was not able to start.

Place	Pilot	Race No	Aircraft	Time
1	Frank Fuller	23	P-35	7:54
2	Earl Ortman	4	Marcoux	9:49
3	Jacqueline Cochran	13	Beechcraft	10:29
4	Frank Sinclair	63	P-35	11:02
5	Milo Burcham	20	Lockheed	11:03
6	Eiler Sundorph	17	Sundorph	12:17
DNF	Bob Perlick	64	Beechcraft	1
DNF	Joe Mackey	57	Wedell	2

1. Landing gear collapsed on take-off no injuries.
2. Broken oil line, landed St. Lewis no injuries.

Sundorph Special Marcoux-Bromberg Ortman

During the planning sessions for 1937 it was decided to send
Major Al Williams to Germany to again invite Ernst Udet
to the air races, but Udet was now a high ranking officer in the
Luftwaffe and his superiors would not allow him to attend. The
German Government did send a number of civilians to perform
aerobatics and demonstrations plus their new mail plane that
flew half way across the Atlantic where it would land next to a
seaplane tender, refuel and fly on to New York. The seaplane
was anchored a little offshore on Lake Erie on the west side
of Cleveland's lakefront and flew over the air races daily.

Count Otto Von Hagenburg, of Germany winner of the 1937
International aerobatic championship at Zurich Switzerland,
was master of inverted flight. Flying daily only inches from the
ground, caught his tail in the grass as he pulled up on his last
pass of the day, the Bucker Jungmeister rolled up into a ball.
Von Hagenburg was only slightly injured as the center section
of the plane did not collapse The next day he flew Romania's
Captain Alex Papana's Bucker doing the same routine.
While both Von Hagenburg and Papana were performing great
aerobatics, a third pilot, Commander Jose Cabral of the
Portuguese Navy did his acrobatic routine in a seaplane.

Parachute jumping demonstrations were big crowd pleasers. Some of these jumpers
developed their own act and wore a "bat suit" jumping from about 10,000 feet and flying
as a "bat man" to 1,000 feet before opening their parachute.

Rudy Kling Folkerts Steve Wittmann's Chief Oshkosh

Gus Gotch Schoenfeld Roger Don Rae Folkerts

Place	Pilot	Aircraft	Speed
1	G O'Donnell	Ryan	129.653
2	B Browning	Cessna	144.562
3	E Gardner	Cessna	136.560
4	A Gipson	Monocoupe	112.562
5	D Munro	Rearwin	88.893

Thompson Trophy Race

Thompson_color_small.jpg (4318 bytes)

Unlimited, free-for-all; Thompson Trophy Race
200 miles, 20 laps over a 10-mile course Total prize $24,000

The 1937 Thompson Trophy Race was full of surprises to say the least.
Early on Steve Wittman flying his Curtiss D-12 powered racer took the
lead and kept Turner, Ortman and Kling at bay, by the end of the eighteenth
lap Wittman was a half of a lap ahead of all the rest and gaining. As the
nineteenth started he pulled up to 2000 feet and slowed down allowing
Roscoe Turner to gain the lead with Ortman and Rudy Kling some distance
behind. On the back side of the course Roscoe blinded by the sun and oil
spray on his windshield thought he had cut inside the pylon. According to
the rules of the race he re-circled the pylon which allowed Ortman to gain
the lead followed by Kling. Earl Ortman was the only pilot in the Thompson
that was equipped with a radio and Benny Howard who was coaching him
from the ground advised him to slow down to save his engine. As the two
racers approached the finish pylon, Kling, who was higher than Ortman
added his last bit of power and dove toward the finish line leading
Earl Ortman by five feet and winning the race by two tenth's of a second.
Kling did not know he won the race, he believed passing Ortman would
give him second place, newsmen rushed up to him with the news he won.
To add to all the confusion, most everyone except the timers thought it
was the 19th lap including the motion picture cameramen. As you can
see from the above photo the camera crew were not filming at the time
Kling passed Ortman, only the still photo records the win. As for Turner,
he did not cut the pylon and he would have won the race had he nor circled
the pylon again. After Steve Wittman landed, Art Chester walked over and
asked what happened to cause him to pull up and slow down? Steve told
Art he didn't know except the engine lost power. Art related the same thing
happened to him and the magneto was at fault. A Bendix factory technician
on the field checked the magneto and found it to be faulty, costing Steve
the race. Another "what if" in racing!

A photo finish
(Bill Meixner collection)

Rudy and Mrs. Kling receive the Thompson Trophy from Fred Crawford

Place	Pilot	Race No	Aircraft	Speed
1	Rudy Kling	301	Folkerts	256.910
2	Earl Ortman	4	Marcoux	256.858
3	Roscoe Turner	29	Turner-Laird	253.802
4	Frank Sinclair	63	Seversky	252.360
5	Steve Wittman	6	Wittman D-12	250.108
6	Ray Moore	23	Seversky	238.411
7	Gus Gotch	70	Schoenfeld	217.810
--	Marion McKeen	33	Brown B-2	1
--	Joe Mackey	25	Wedell-Williams	2

1 Dropped out in the 13th lap
2 Dropped out in the 17th lap

Rudy Kling's Folkerts SK-3

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