Page:The Fun of It.pdf/189

Rh tion to these and the 450 LC’s and Privates, twelve women hold glider licenses and five are li­censed mechanics.

Although only two years separates them, it is a far cry from the pioneering derby performance to women’s share in the National Air Races in Cleve­land in 1931, There for the first time in the United States men and women participated in a cross coun­try derby together. There were about fifty en­trants whose planes had been handicapped on the basis of their top speeds.

Unlike the British, the Americans have done little mixed racing, nor have they favored any sys­tem of handicapping. The method of determining classes has been almost universally based on size of motors. Thus, a cabin airplane built to carry six passengers might be placed in the same class with a strictly racing plane carrying only the pilot because both had engines with the same cubic inch displace­ment.

In England, on the other hand, almost all racing has been carried on with the fast planes starting late to give the slower ones a chance—motors not being considered. So that, barring an accident, good piloting wins or loses. The King’s Cup Race, the most famous annual cross country event, is run in this manner, and is open to all pilots of both sexes. Miss Winifred Brown is the only woman who has won it (1930).

While the 1931 American derby pilots raced over the same course, made the same stops, and were