This silent film is a somewhat fragmentary newsreel, showing some of the events at the 1931 Cleveland National Air Races. The film was likely commissioned by Cliff Henderson, who organized the races with his brother. Some of the notables who appear in the film include race pilot Jimmy Doolittle, aviator Charles Lindbergh and the supervising builder of many of Germany’s most successful dirigibles, Hugo Eckener (referred to in the film as Eckner).

The film begins with shots of a mass parachute jump, followed at 1:17 with footage of Hugo Eckener, commander of the Graf Zeppelin, arriving in Cleveland. At 1:50, Eckener meets with Charles Lindbergh. At 2:08, Eckener sits at a seat of honor at the races and at 2:33, he rides a blimp to Akron. At 2:59, Army and Navy fighters fly in formation. At 4:46, Jimmy Doolittle in a Laird Super Solution wins the Bendix Transcontinental race. At 5:44, German flier Ernst Udet appears with his D-822 Flamingo aircraft. He puts on quite an acrobatic show. The film ends with footage of an autogyro landing on the field.

The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Air Races. Initial prize money for the winners was $15,000. The last Bendix Trophy Race was flown in 1962.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com