High-flying attractions
Recently while driving through the greening hills of north Arkansas I was suddenly treated to a spectacular sight—a beautiful hot air balloon sailing across the road ahead of me. It reminded me of the great balloon race held in Little Rock in April 1926.
This was not just any balloon race, but the highly regarded National Balloon Elimination Race, the final selection of a team to represent the United States in the Bennet International Competition in Brussels, Belgium, a month later. Amazingly enough, the often discordant city and state officials worked tirelessly to promote the competition, raising money for prizes, hosting social events, and Gov. Tom J. Terral even declared April 29-30 as state holidays—with everyone urged to attend the competition at the Little Rock Airport.
In 1926 Little Rock saw itself as a city on the move. The economy was robust; the population was growing, and not a month passed without the announcement of some new local venture or government project. Little Rock had rebuilt its airport, and a new National Guard Observation Squadron had recently been assigned to it. An article in the
Mena Democrat prophesied that “Arkansas is destined to become a converging center of commercial and government air lines to the Southwest.”
The two-day meet was packed with action. Parachutists jumped from airplanes, pilots demonstrated combat flying as well as formation flying. Farmers could watch a “demonstration of cotton dusting,” possibly the earliest example of aerial crop dusting in Arkansas. Radio station KTHS of Hot Springs broadcast the event through “remote control.”
Little Rock was filled with visitors from throughout the country including many military officers, aviation pioneers, and manufacturers with planes to sell. Walter H. Beech, the pioneering and visionary manufacturer from Wichita, Kan., told reporters he expected family owned airplanes to become popular within five years. Other prominent visitors were Jimmy Doolittle, World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacher, and Orville Wright.
A shortage of hotel rooms caused the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce to publish an urgent request for families to open their homes to visitors.
A competition between National Guard aircraft was won by the Alabama National Guard, which received “a handsome silver cup.” Two races were held for commercial planes, one for those with engines of at least 100 horsepower, and a “free for all.” Travel Air Manufacturing Co. of Wichita, Kan., won the competition in both races.
At 5 p.m. on the first day of the event, the balloon races got underway. The objective of the race was to keep the balloon aloft as long as possible, with the winner being the pilot landing the farthest from Little Rock. Among the prominent balloonists competing was Herbert Van Thaden, piloting the Detroit, who met his future wife, Louise McPhetridge of Bentonville, at the competition. Louise Thaden would go on to become an acclaimed aviation pioneer and holder of numerous flight records.
The first balloon to take off was mostly a publicity stunt. Sponsored by the Arkansas Gazette, the Skylark was the official pilot balloon, and it was the smallest craft in the competition. Instead of using sand as ballast, the Skylark carried copies of the newspaper to throw overboard at certain points.
The Skylark was the first craft to launch and the first to land, making it only to neighboring Tennessee. Soon enveloped by the darkness of night, the two-person crew spent their time listening to a radio. They were able to pick up KTHS Radio Station in Hot Springs, one of the most powerful stations in the region, and listen to a report of their departure.
Only three balloons made it across the Appalachian Mountains. The winning craft was the Goodyear IV, piloted by Ward T. Van Orman, who had won the competition twice before. Van Orman took his craft all the way to within sight of the Chesapeake Bay, about 780 miles in 31 hours.
The state of Arkansas used the occasion of the competition to kick off a publicity campaign. One newspaper described the campaign as an effort to make Americans aware “of the resources and advantages of this state …” Among the leaders of the publicity campaign were banker A. B. Banks, realtor and developer Justin Matthews, R. E. L. Wilson of Mississippi County, and the up-and-coming utilities entrepreneur Harvey Couch of Pine Bluff.
The plan came to naught, for within a year Little Rock was the scene of a brutal lynching that stole the national headlines, and much of the state was devastated by the great flood of 1927.