The end of aviation's honeymoon and 'the world's greatest air race': The new age of airmindedness and the 1934 MacRobertson air competition

This doctoral dissertation study focused on the 1934 MacRobertson International Air Race as a vehicle to discuss and analyze the rise of the passenger airline and air mail industries in the 1930s. The study concentrated on the U.S. entry to the MacRobertson Air Race featuring two American pilots: Colonel Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn. Archival collections of both Turner and Pangborn were utilized in order to place the pilots, the MacRobertson race, air racing as a major sport in the early twentieth century, and passenger airline and air mail businesses into proper historical context as major socio-cultural forces. The findings of this study add to the literature on the history of aviation, global business, and popular culture by proving how these forces shaped modern, international aviation, transportation, travel, and commerce. Charles Lindbergh's historic 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean is used as a major focus to prove that travel, transportation, and trade all changed forever after that point. Pangborn was the first pilot to fly the Pacific Ocean non-stop in 1931, and Turner is considered the premier air racer of the 1930s. National and international air racing was one of the premier spectator sports in the 1930s. Turner and Pangborn teamed up to fly a Boeing 247-D transport airplane in the MacRobertson race and placed third in the Speed Division. A Douglas DC-2 transport plane flown by a Dutch entry finished in second place. As a result of this competition, Boeing's and Douglas's rise as major aircraft manufacturers proved that large transport planes could be adapted for airline travel and major trade on an international basis. The MacRobertson race proved to be the last major international competition as industrialized nations subverted the airplane for military considerations after 1934 in the global build up to World War II.